


Seven Devils (Before the Day is Done)

by Chellacat, JamesBestGirl



Series: We'll Meet Again [5]
Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Multi-Fandom, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Timelines, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Epic, F/M, Pack Dynamics, Pack Family, Unreliable Narrator, Worldbuilding, bitten off more than i can chew, it got away from me a bit
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-19
Packaged: 2019-10-08 07:40:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 34,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17382461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chellacat/pseuds/Chellacat, https://archiveofourown.org/users/JamesBestGirl/pseuds/JamesBestGirl
Summary: The Sequel to We'll Meet Again (Don't Know Where, Don't Know When)With the threat of Thanos on the horizon the two pack's must come together to face the enemy.  But other forces are in play which will undermine their efforts and could leave them more vulnerable to defeat than anyone could ever have predicted.  Fate has already laid out their destiny, or so they believe, but not everything is always as it seems.





	1. God Shuffled His Feet

 May 2018. Old Guard Headquarters, New York. (Six months before Darcy's Trip to the Past.)

 

Peggy, Natalie and Gabe were occupying the conference room, the table groaning under the weight of the files they were going through.  There was only six months left before they would be able to make themselves known to their missing members and there was a mad scramble to have everything up to date, neatly labelled, and all lose ends tied up as best they could.  In preparation for the last Pack review they were going over their own projects, people and situations of which they were in charge.  It would make the final meeting much smoother of they knew right away what they were going to be voting on or discussing and what could be simply forwarded as a briefing to simply keep others up to date.  Over the last decade everything had started to speed up.  It had seemed as though more and more people who were in some way enhanced were crawling out of the wood work at an alarming rate.  This was partly their own fault of course, as they had spent decades trying to stop the decline of the enhanced population. 

“We’ve had seven decades to get things in place, why does it feel like we’re cramming at the last minute for the exam?”  Gabe complained as he set another file aside.  They were in the middle of trying to put together a briefing for their Alpha that would be organised enough to make sense of the last decades, it was important to them all to be able to help him hit the ground running when Darcy returned, time was a big factor and they couldn’t afford to have him blindsided by anything the pack had had a hand in.

Peggy grinned, he wasn’t wrong in that analogy, it really did feel as though they were on a deadline for finals and were coming up short.

“I think we can all agree that Darcy couldn’t possibly have covered everything and a great deal of what we have done has been regarding matters that would never have made the light of day in the first place.  The devil is in the details as they say.”

Natalie snorted and smiled wickedly. 

“No, the Devil is in LA last I checked.  He’s got a thing for a detective there, he’s been helping her solve crimes for the last three years.”

Peggy drew her a long-suffering look as Natalie let her eyes glint a little at her own mischief.

“I told you before Natalie, I am not going to ask how you even met the… man.  I’m just happy he’s discrete enough to keep the reality of the existence of the divine to a small circle.”

“He’s a decent guy, besides if he was ever a threat, he’s certainly not one now.  Not to us at any rate, can’t promise the same for anyone that hurts his girl though.”  Natalie had been in LA on a case with her partner, William Brandt when they had run into the fallen Angel at his club.  Being more than aware of the weird and wonderful things in the world had made them both a little more open to the idea of the supernatural, what they had witnessed there had cemented for both of them just how crazy the whole world really was.

Gabe chuckled. 

“I can’t believe that the Devil being a police consultant in LA isn’t the weirdest thing we have on the books.  For me it’s a toss up between the supernatural community down in New Orleans and the those kids in Chicago, what were their name’s again?”

“Stephen Jameson and Cara Coburn.”

“That’s the ones, it is damn weird what their people do, with the popping about, telepathy and the TK and I still cannot believe that dude rewound time, it’s crazy, even small scale that sort of power we’ve only seen performed by beings of magical origin or beings wielding artifacts of power.” 

Finding another little evolutionary branch of humanity hadn’t been all that surprising, they had after all come across many different flavours of human.  The Tomorrow People, as they called themselves were just another nail in the coffin confirming that human genetics had been tampered with many times over the millennia by more than one alien species.  Whether it was from aliens marrying into the family or simply pushing the evolutionary curve of their ancestors the result was the same, strange almost god like powers popping up over and over again. 

“To be fair, none of them have abused their powers and those that do, they deal with swiftly and carefully.  It’s one less problem on our plate.  Although I suppose with things now coming to a head, we will have to reach out to them shortly, especially now that they seem to have created a stable power base.  I think The Centre has been sponsoring their work hasn’t it?”

“Yes, Agent Parker and Jarod file reports with us every month on them, nothing we’ve had to flag or have sent up the chain.  I can give the order to start the initiation process for their group now if you want.”  Gabe told them, his eyes cast down on the file in front of him.  Like so many of the different enhanced human groups on the planet, the core group and leadership were a strong pack revolving around an Alpha and Omega.  It was something they were seeing more and more of in the younger generation of superpowered people, the extreme situations they found themselves in seemed to trigger the instincts to build packs, large ones, packs that were shaping up to be formidable and capable of strong influence on their communities.  The very thing the old guard had been hoping to subtly encourage and help had been growing.  There were many small towns in north America now with a main leading pack that seemed to be deferred to automatically by the towns people.  It filled Gabe with hope that it really wasn’t too late to save them, that they could stop the Conspiracy in it’s tracks and reverse the damage they had done.

Peggy and Natalie exchanged glances.  Both considering the timing.  Peggy raised her brow in question and Natalie nodded with a small shrug.  Now was as good a time as any, probably better to have it dealt with now and iron out any problems before their deadline ran out.

“Have Jarod handle it and perhaps send along one Xavier’s, Dr Grey perhaps, she’s a competent telepath, a medical doctor and will balance out Jarod’s mother hen reflex.  Do not let Agent Parker go, she’s too predatory to send out on this one.”  Peggy instructed calmly, keeping her face straight even in the wake of the looks both sent her way after the comment on Ms Parker.  She had met the other Alpha female only once and had decided that from that point on they could communicate reasonably and work well at a distance.  Andrea Parker did not play well with others as a general rule and guarded her pack and territory with lethal efficiency.  As the head of one of their most trusted agency’s and leader of her pack she was an invaluable ally.

 

The next order of business was her old home country.  Peggy was long overdue for a visit, it had been nearly a decade since she had last stepped foot there.  There was little to be concerned about there though.  Monty and Lizzie had, unsurprisingly to no one, had a large brood of children who almost all went into the intelligence services in one way or another.  They had had to change there names and identities three times in the years since they had their first children.  Currently Mark Falsworth, their son, was head of MI5 while his daughter Margot was head of MI6.  His twin sister Lillian had been Grant Wards mother.  Their next set of twins were Nikita and Ruth.  Nikita headed Section, an international counter terrorism organisation and Ruth ran GCHQ in London.  Their last set of twins were Mycroft and Sherlock.  Mycroft had risen to the highest position he could within the British government and now had total, albeit unseen control of the administration.  Sherlock, the youngest was now Sorcerer Supreme of Earth, something Peggy tried hard not to think of as it gave her a headache.  Sherlock had been a difficult man before visiting Kamar Taj, after, the only saving grace she could think of were his match mates, John and Molly, without them both to ground him she shuddered to think what havoc he could wreak.

“Everything seems to be almost tied up nicely in Britain.  With Falsworth’s brood virtually running the government and intelligence services the only lose end we have to deal with there will be the armed services.”

“I think it will be simpler than you think.  We have a number of contacts cultivated there who had ties to a number of the British unit packs we allied with during the war.  I have few names here we need to review.”  Natalie passed out briefing packet’s to Peggy and Gabe.

“Colonel John Porter is up first.  His grandfather was one of ours, he was read in back in 2003 after he left the army due to a cover up.  He felt personally responsible for an incident that was never his fault.  His grandfather sent him our way then.  M brought him into intelligence under Section 20 where he was then passed out to Dugan’s group before going back to Section 20 undercover.  He’s a great field commander, an excellent agent and commands a great deal of respect.  He has developed a solid network since he returned to the army, one we can count on in any situation if the need arises.”

“I agree, he’s one of my top picks if we need to have the army co-ordinate with the government.  He’s got a good relationship with M too, I think now is a good time to read him in fully.”

“I have no objection, everything here seems to indicate we can rely on him.”  Peggy nodded, turning the next page.

“Next we have General Richard Sharpe, not one of ours though.  He’s had a colourful career.  Made his way up the chain from cadet at 14, joined the army at 17, made Staff Sargent at 26 continued up the ranks, offered a commission and was made Captain by the time he was 35.  This was just before things kicked off in the Gulf.  At this point most of his record was wiped, we miss a few years then see him as Colonel of a special force’s unit.  There’s so much blacked out in his jacket they might as well have torched it.  He’s now in charge of all British Special Forces.  When he took over, he implemented changes to the units, moved men about till they were operating on pack principles.  Mycroft even seems wary of the man if that tells you anything.  The most interesting bit is his life outside the army.  He lives off base in a small military town.  His neighbours include three other generals and four colonels and a dozen or so other officers.  He has links to them all, from what we have gleaned it looks like a full pack, including spouses and children.  The town is crime free, security is tight, and no stranger passes through without being discreetly observed.”

“A pack or a Pack Royal?”

“My instincts say Pack Royal.  But they’ve been careful about it.  They don’t meet as a whole group unless there’s some sort of Town event.  It looks like the spouses are the ones keeping the territory and ensuring strong links.  Rachel Sharpe, his wife is the head of every Ladies society in the town and every army officer or soldier’s wife follows her like a flock of baby ducklings.  It’s the same mistake the Non’s always make, they never watch the Omega’s, even now they dismiss them as nothing more than objects.  It’s a smart play, the spouses keep the fires burning and pass messages while the Alpha’s and Beta’s keep distance.  I think Sharpe knows something, think he probably came across the same thing we did, probably during his time in the Gulf.  It’s after that the friends he made all slowly over the course of fifteen years, moved, transferred or made their way into top positions and into the same area.”

“How long have we known about this?”

“About a year.  Sherlock was passing through the town on his way to a consult and his car broke down.  He had to stay for two days while it was fixed.  He went straight to Mycroft and M with it as soon as he was back in London proper.  Mycroft’s been discreetly keeping tabs on it and steering anyone we suspect of collaboration with The Conspiracy out of their way.”

“I suppose that one I’ll have to deal with myself then.  Exactly how much of the army does he have influence on through these pack members?”

“I’d say about two thirds, with Porter bringing another third and the quarter of our intelligence community that M doesn’t have in her pocket.  That just leaves us to sort out Airforce and Navy.”

Peggy nodded her eyes still skimming the file.  Richard Sharpe was a rugged looking man, well preserved for one who was nearing sixty.  His cold blue eyes told well of the horrors he had probably seen but also spoke of an iron will and the absolute control of a powerful Alpha.  He took care of his people, protected them and wasn’t above doing what was necessary to ensure their safety.  She turned a few pages, hoping to find something useful.  Mother Vanessa Sharpe unmarried father unknown.  Hmmm.  She glanced again at his birthdate.  April 1959.  A germ of an idea formed in her head before she dismissed it, but a niggle at the back of her mind told her to follow it up, she made a note in the file and decided to revisit it soon, before she went to meet the man herself.

“I hope you have more good news with the Navy or Airforce.”  Natalie shook her head negatively as Gabe spoke up.

“Not at the moment.  Individual groups seem to be steady enough, happy to follow chain of command.  Both services have Non’s in the top three positions each.  They are also the services with the highest number of Non’s spread out from the top tier down.  Mycroft and M both agree that McKenna, Brix and Dodds can’t be turned and most likely have deep ties to the Conspiracy.  But Fraser, Hale and Lennox are all wild cards.  Initial briefs feel that if the first three are relieved of duty those taking their place will likely follow chain of command as it comes from Mycroft and M’s offices.  We have a few names from Mycroft that he would like to maneuver up the chain but the last two men he put forward died under odd circumstances.  That may have to wait till he has dealt with Dodds, Brix and McKenna.”

“Again, taking that sort of action is something to consider carefully.  Let’s have briefs put together for the rest on this matter and we’ll bring it up in August.”  Natalie said pulling another stack of folders into her space then passing the top two to Peggy and Gabe.  The files detailed the recent successful attempts to legalise and make law mandatory genetic testing for all new-borns.  She knew it meant nothing good, could see the hands behind the measures and the reason for doing it. 

“Mandatory genetic testing of new-borns has been passed in 24 countries in the last eight months.  I think they’re moving up on something.”

“Have we been able to alter results?”  Peggy asked, running her finger down the page, a small smile appearing on her face.  Numbers of designate and mutant children were on the climb again.

“Most, we’ve done our best but there are times they use labs to process results that we don’t have operatives in.  In those cases, we try to intercept results between labs and governments, we don’t always succeed.  It does help us though, we have much better data now on just what the actual numbers are and it gives us a good insight into exactly who needs our protection the most.  We will need more people on this now, expand into childcare and school districts.  If they’re planning to go after the children who are the biggest threat, it’s most likely to happen out of the care of their parents.”  Natalie held tight control of her temper.  She had seen what their enemies were capable of doing to children, had seen the aftermath of too many accidents.  There were days she wished they could all come forward with the information they had, wished they could tell the world and watch as packs ripped the people responsible limb from limb, but she knew the cost of doing that would be high in innocent lives.  They couldn’t afford to start witch hunts.  All it would do would foster violence and mistrust between base line humans and enhanced.  It would be a blood bath, they all knew it, it was the last thing any of them would ever want.  Peggy gave her a tight smile before speaking.  The other woman felt her anger clearly, shared it too, Alpha and Omega women, both so passionate in their work. 

“I think it’s time to increase staffing to that division then.  It’s imperative that we can protect the results.  The Conspiracy having the real numbers of designates, mutants and other evolved humans would be disastrous.  It’s better they believe that numbers are reducing and that their plans have been working.  We can’t afford to have them make another move now.”

“Britain seems to be pulling ahead in that regard, France, Germany and Italy are right behind them.  Numbers of enhanced human births are up thirty percent, the next generation seem to be combining the two traits well, designate mutants.  Of course, we won’t see any real impact till they hit their teens, but it’s going to be something.”  Gabe broke in, soothing the tension that had been building.

“Do you have copy of current census records Gabe?”

“Right here.” He passed Peggy the sheet.  The baby boomer generation made up a large percentage and with suppressants having come out just as that generation was kicking off combined with the numbers of designate soldiers that were killed in the war it had seen a massive rise in baseline humans.  The baby boomer generation was made up of nearly sixty-eight percent non-designates.  People who were still alive today and many of them in powerful positions, easily led and convinced by the party line of The Conspiracy. 

“The numbers are still pretty grim.  The 1900 census shows us around 30 percent Alpha 16 percent Omega and 37 percent Beta/other designates with only 17 percent non designate.  The census from 2000 show 17 percent Alpha, 9 percent Omega and only 20 percent Beta/other.  54 percent baseline human and mutants.  Mutants making up perhaps 7 percent.”

“But that’s changed drastically from the numbers we’re seeing here of the next generation, baseline births are down to 23 percent.”

“That’s more down to social mobility than anything else.  People being more aware of the dangers suppressants pose to later fertility meant less designates taking them.  Baseline woman also began prioritising career over family, it’s meant a drop in fertility for them and since they typically only birth one at a time to most Omega and Beta’s twin and triplet births, we’ve seen an upsurge.  Of the baseline humans having kids, mutant births have went from one in twenty in the 1970’s to one in four as of 2010.  Couple all that with near four decades of peace and we have three generations of designates that weren’t shipped off to die en-masse, meaning more mating and a surge in the last decade of matches.  We’re winning this war, we really are.”

“We’re winning because we’ve been willing to work with people we would normally avoid.”  Peggy sighed.  Back at the beginning they had been grasping for allies and there were no people more dedicated to the idea of family, loyalty and pack than some of the most dangerous criminals in the world.  Over time they had developed solid relationships with many packs who controlled organised crime.  The ones they had kept ties with were those who held solidly to archaic pack code.   

“But it’s been worth it.  We may not like their methods or their morals, but they are not the ones attacking our way of life.  Look what’s happing in Russia, nearly every member of The Conspiracy there has been killed, disappeared or jailed.  If we want to take things back to Pack rule, we have to acknowledge that territory is sacred.  As much as we don’t like it, the only real power other than government were the Mafia’s, Russian, Chinese, Italian…  Peggy they were the only people that still had good pack systems in place, networks and connections.  Since they moved Alpha Kuryakin into power, he has slowly eradicated our enemies in his country and he made it look like a political move rather than, let on he knew what they were actually doing.  I don’t like him, but I respect his stance.  He is willing to protect his pack and his people, just like we are.  Let’s be honest, I’ve never heard a bad word about the man from any Russian who is either designate or mutant.  We know the truth of what’s going on there.  The media is still out of our hands and we have to remember that for every news article damning him there are ten more in Russia, genuine articles, uncensored, that sing the guys praises.”

“I know.  Sometimes though I look back on what we’ve set in motion and I worry if we’ve done the right thing…”

Natalie reached out, grasping her hands and locking eyes with her.

“We have.  You’re worried about Steve, that’s understandable, he’s always been a little naive, that isn’t going to have changed.  But he will trust you and he will trust his Alpha.  I know my brother, Bucky will agree with each decision you’ve made, he will understand why, and he will agree that he would have done the same thing.  My brother was ruthless when he needed to be, especially in defence of family.  He protected Steve from that part of himself, hid it away, but it was always there.  He might not have killed a man before joining the army, but he had already learned how to make a point without killing before he was sixteen.  An eye for an eye, he said, made the whole world blind, it didn’t stop him from breaking a man’s hands badly enough he would never be able to use them again after he caught him taking advantage of a twelve-year-old girl.  Or the guy who’s knee he mangled when he found him chasing down an omega boy for fun.  My brother is a good man, but he’s no paragon of virtue.  The only person who doesn’t realise it is Steve and that’s all our faults.  We all coddled and fussed over him, we never knew he would become what he became.  We honestly didn’t think he would make it to thirty, he was so weak and sick for years.  It changed when Darcy came, she made him stronger even if he didn’t realise it and then Project Rebirth happened and he was suddenly capable of everything he hadn’t been before.  But he’s been through a lot since then, he’s seen that people are terrible deep down, that trust is something that can’t be given indiscriminately, I think it will be easier to explain to him than you think.  And remember, you are his Alpha, if you think something is good his instincts will tell him to fall in line.  Sometimes I think you’ve forgotten what a little shit he could be, I’ll bet he’ll have you tearing your hair out from frustration in weeks of seeing him again.”

Peggy rolled her eyes and let out a breath.  Her own personal worries aside, she knew that looking at what they had planned out from the outside could be seen as not only dangerous, but so morally grey they might as well be setting up shop on the dark side.  She could spend another lifetime going over the past decisions she had made, the actions she and the pack had taken and still not have a satisfactory conclusion as to the right or wrong if it all.  They were in the end game now.  The final pieces of their plans and contingencies slotting into place.  At the end of the day she had no way of knowing what the end result would be for the world they lived in.  Thanos could, despite every precaution and all the planning they had done, still win.  If he did, their plans for the future of the planet would be obsolete anyway.  But if they did win, if they succeeded, she wanted more than anything to live in a world where they could stop looking over their shoulders. 

The threat the Conspiracy posed to packs, mutants and others with extraordinary powers was staggering.  They had tried to kill them off through inspiring conflict, war and famine.  When that didn’t happen fast enough, they tampered with medication’s trying to impact fertility through the suppressants that offered Omega’s a way to be safer in society, to plan their families.  When that again didn’t work, they resorted to outright murder of Omega’s, especially those paired with Alpha’s or who could be potential queens. 

The research into their genetic makeup had been heavily invested in by their own scientists, trying to understand more about what if meant to be Alpha, Beta or Omega.  From that research they had discovered that it was much more complicated than three distinct designations.  Alpha’s came in two categories; The Alpha Prime, one capable of leading other Alpha’s and gaining the allegiance of other Alpha leaders and the Beta Alpha, more naturally inclined to head their small family pack.  Omega’s came in three types; Omega Queens they only ever matched or paired with Alpha Prime’s they tended to be more independent than ordinary Omegas.  Omegas, the typical standard home maker and nurturer only inclined to match to an Alpha.  Then the third kind, a little rarer, the Beta Omega who only ever matched or paired with a Beta, more assertive than a typical Omega but not as independent as a Queen. 

Beta’s could be broken down into a few groups, there was the more common Beta, who craved pack and security and had an overwhelming need to be part soldier, part shepherd.  Then there were those who for centuries were assumed to be Beta’s. Although no new designate names had been agreed on, they fell into three groups, those who liked the security of pack and could fill most rolls, those who served best as carers or healers and finally those who were happier to stand apart from the pack and only have a loose association with it, usually through family.  It made sense, that there was more to the whole thing than leaders, mothers and soldiers.  It was these outlying Beta groups that did the most intermarrying with baseline humans.  Alpha’s, Omega’s and true Beta’s it seemed, almost never married outside designate lines.  It made sense genetically speaking to have strong Alpha, Beta’s and Omega’s mate within the dynamic genepool.  It meant a continuation of strong designates to fill those rolls.  The falling numbers of all three caused by the deliberate murder and sabotage of their kind had almost resulted in their extinction.  If not for the actions of The Old Guard, designates might have been wiped out altogether in less than another two centuries, it was grim reading.

Peggy closed the file in front of her and took the next one.  The American election.  That was a sticky point of debate amongst the pack. 

Natalie was all suppressed excitement over that one.  She plunged right in in support of her chosen candidate.

“He’s the first presidential candidate since JFK to be an Alpha with a pack composed of those outside his family circle.  The man has kept his nose clean his whole life, did incredible amounts of good work through the innocence project and his law firm has more Pro Bono work in the books over the last forty years than any other ever.  His terms as both Governor and then Senator were without scandal and the progress he achieved in both positions mean that his home state is better off financially than every other state excepting New York and California.  The man is a liberal with a strong social conscience but all the values many modern conservatives can support.  He’s up against a corrupt arrogant and frankly ignorant property tycoon with a history alleged of sexual assault, who also has dangerous ties known associates of the Conspiracy.  I think it’s time to weigh the odds a little in our favour here.  Darcy went missing the day before the election, she didn’t know the result and said it was too close to call.  Let’s put some of our resources into backing Bartlett, have something big enough leak about the opposition to give him one more boost on the big day.”

Gabe couldn’t disagree with her assessment, but he was a firm believer in self-determination, the thought of tampering with the election of the president of his own country didn’t sit well with him. 

“Even if you make some good points.  You’re talking about tampering with an election.”  His tone was more resigned than angry.  Natalie gave him a pained look.

“This can’t be done without more discussion and a full meeting of all senior members.  We’ll put it to the vote on Tuesday.  Meanwhile I want another more thorough back ground check on Bartlett and all members of his pack.  We can’t afford to make any mistakes here if we really are going to back him, however discreetly.”  Peggy interjected, her two pack mates seemed to be happy with that decision.

“Agreed, I’ll have Agents Libby and Murphy get started on that.”  Natalie conceded. 

“All right let’s wrap this up.  Anything left before we go home for day?”  Peggy finally asked.

Gabe snorted. 

“Just a request from Morita to have Peter Parker more closely monitored while not on school grounds.  He really does care about the boy.  He’s still firm in his belief that Parker is Tony’s son.”

“We never managed to get any evidence of such.”  Natalie pointed out.

“True, but we haven’t really tried either.”  Gabe rallied back.

“It just seems too far fetched.  I mean, how would we miss something like that?  I still maintain he never had a romantic relationship with Mary Alice Parker, before or after her marriage, they were just friends and colleagues.  She wasn’t one of his groupies.”  Natalie insisted.

Peggy pinched the bridge of her nose.

“All right, I think we should settle this once and for all.  The children, I believe cover blood typing in their Biology class this year, a nice safe way to get a blood sample and have his DNA run.  We can try to match it with Howards for comparison and see what we get back.  In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt to have a few extra bodies watching him anyway.  He is quickly integrating into Tony’s little band of misfits.  No doubt he’ll be part of that pack one day.  Let’s keep him safe.”

Silently Peggy also acknowledged it would allow her to get a copy of Howard's genetic profile for the little investigation that had popped up on her radar.  She slipped the file on Richard Sharpe into her bag before the other two could notice.  It required a little more scrutiny.

 

 

 

 

Original Timeline (Earth 616), May 2018

 

Stephen Strange contemplated the realities he had viewed, looking, searching for a way to stop it all.  Thanos would win.  No matter what he saw change, the Titan always won.  Fourteen million possibilities and only one where they might defeat him, but the cost would still be high, too high.  He stepped into the mirror dimension and stopped time.  There had to be some other way.  A pyric victory was no victory at all.  Perhaps the answer was not in changing the future, but in changing the past.  But using the time stone to alter events already lived was dangerous.  There was no real way of knowing how things would turn out, he himself could be written out of the timeline if the change needed to stop all this was further back than his initiation to Kamar-Taj.   Just as he attempted to return and give the bad news to the rag tag team they had formed, he was yanked from the mirror dimension and pulled out of time and space.  The depth-less eyes of the Ancient One met his as she smiled regretfully towards him.  Stephens face drained of colour.  This was impossible, his mentor was dead, had been for years, but every sense was telling him that it was her, standing before him, very much alive.  No one could fake a magical signature like that, especially not hers, it was incredibly powerful and unique.  They stood, motionless staring at each other for a time before Stephen finally regained his composure.  Just as he formulated a question, she spoke.

“Hello, Doctor Strange. Come join us, we have much to discuss.”

He walked forward slowly and felt reality warp about him again as he followed her into a pocket dimension.  The space was unassuming and mostly empty save the table which was set for four. 

Loki sat grim faced and silent beside the Ancient One, his hand rubbing his neck gingerly.  The bruising there was concerning, who or what could damage a god so badly?  On the other side of the Ancient One sat a woman, at first glance she seemed relatively normal next to her companions, but as he crossed the room, he saw the flickering as her form seemed to morph between ages.  A shiver ran up his spine as he began to piece together who it was that he would be sharing tea with.  The Norns.  Three beings, separate yet one.  They were found in all mythologies the worlds over.  The Fates, the weavers, destiny, guides.  They had been powerful once, so powerful that Odin’s father Bor had them bound and trapped in the roots of Yggdrasil, forever unable to directly alter reality.  Only those stupid enough or desperate enough would complete the tasks needed to reach them and ask their advice.  Advice which they could not even give directly.  Cursed to speak around their meaning.  Stephen sat and regarded them coolly, he had no intention of speaking first.

The Ancient One poured him tea and he nodded his thanks, taking the cup and lifting it to his lips.

“Now that we are all present, we can begin.”  She said softly.  “Thanks to Thanos actions all life in the universe is about to be erased.  We are currently in a pocket dimension created to keep the Norns in a sort of perpetual imprisonment, it’s the only reason we are even here, the last place any would think to look, let alone Thanos.  Time has no meaning here, for we are outside it.  All of existence is both just beginning and just ending.  I have known the likely fate of the universe and had centuries to think about this, as have the Norns, together, we have come up with a plan.”

Loki looked sceptical and regarded the Norns with suspicion.

“A plan to stop Thanos, and you include me?  I’m flattered, but I really must decline, I have to find my brother and stop him from doing something stupid.”  He said, attempting to leave the table.  The chair rammed back into his knees and he sat again with a startled yelp.

“The time for foolish posturing is over Loki of Asgard.  The universe hangs in the balance, it’s destruction imminent.  There is no more that can be done to save it.  At least not from this point in your timeline.”

Stephen frowned.  The idea prickled in his mind.

The Norns rippled before settling on the appearance of lady of indeterminate age, neither young, nor old.  She held up a silencing hand.

“Enough.  There is no way to stop Thanos now, already the ripples of destruction in the immediate future have spread back far enough in time for us to feel the consequences.  There is nothing that could be done to erase the damage he will cause.  The souls of trillions will have been annihilated, the underworld tearing itself apart at the seams trying to accommodate them.  The plains of existence shudder and fray.  If our reality breaks down it will affect the entire multiverse.  Everything in all of creation will be extinguished.  The only recourse is to reorder time and change something fundamental. We have done this now thousands of times.  We four have rewritten time and tried to stop him in many ways.  Nothing we have done has worked.  We have however been able to identify those souls most likely to make the most impact against the Titan.  We spent this last cycle recovering enough of our energy for one last attempt at fixing things.  We grow weary.  Once we were three, separate but in sync, now we inhabit one form, our power is killing us.  Once long ago before Midgard was being brought into being, we marvelled at the determination of humans to overcome the worst of odds.  These short-lived mortals have surprised us time and again.  In numerous timelines they have nearly succeeded in stopping Thanos.  They have come closer to success than any other species.  We have a plan, if you will hear us out.”

Stephen was taken aback.  Humans?  A real threat to a being of the calibre of Thanos?  It seemed so unlikely. 

“I find that hard to believe.  Humans are nothing special.  We aren’t strong like Asgardians, long lived like Frost Giants of skilled in magic as the Vanir.  In what way is my species a threat to a Titan?”

The Ancient One snorted into her teacup.

“So says the man who fought Dormamu and won.”

“ _He_ fought Dormamu?”  Loki asked incredulous.

“Indeed.  He created an endless loop triggered by his death at Dormamu’s hand and rewound time over and over until Dormamu gave up.”

“It was a desperate plan and I still can’t believe it worked.”  Stephen muttered.

“But it did work, and it worked because Humans don’t give up, your kind will try everything and anything in the face of certain death.  You are stubborn as a species to the point of stupidity, but for some incalculable reason the universe looks on your kind and throws luck in your direction, humanity, more than any other species seem to be favoured by and thrives on chaos.  It is a strange brand of magic, but one which should not be discarded or overlooked.  The problem comes in that for all you will band together in times of need, your inability to work with perceived enemies can hinder you.”  The Norns told him while holding him frozen in their gaze.  Then they turned to Loki and he stilled, his knuckles white around the handle of his cup.  Loki looked away, instead turning his sharp eyes on Stephen.

“We wish to change what makes you human.”  They explained, the resonance of their voices shook Stephen to the bone.

“Once, long ago, a great war was fought on Midgard.  Asgardian and Frost Giants tore apart large swaths of land in an effort to bring about the end of the other.  Eventually Odin won, pushed them back to Jotennheim and slaughtered every human child that held a drop of Jotann blood.”

“And what does this have to do with Thanos?”  Stephen asked puzzled. 

Loki stared at the Norns, his eyes eventually widening in disbelief as he put together their plan.

“What good could that possibly do?”  he asked them.

“Can you truly think of nothing which might come of it?”

Loki glanced to find the thoughts of the two humans at the table.  Only Strange looked, remarkably, as lost as he.  But if Loki really considered it.  Perhaps it could help them.  It could change things, could help the heroes of Midgard work better together, keep then bound tightly to each other, perhaps even the evolution eventually of magic in their species.  But it was incredibly risky.  It was essentially genetic engineering.  Literally playing god.

“Depending on which traits these children carried or displayed and how far their genetic heritage travelled over the course of thousands of years…  Surely something of this magnitude, the outcome would be unpredictable, it would not guarantee success.”

“Not on its own, no.  But with some helpful nudges, a little push here and there we could make certain that those who needed to be born would be and that we might also be able to create an Avatar, a Keeper for the soul stone.”

“You would set them on the path to God Hood?  Humans?  They can’t agree on anything 90 percent of the time, god hood?  You would doom the universe if humanity became that powerful.”  Loki’s voice rose as he spoke, he was standing now, staring down the Norns recklessly. 

“Only if they did not learn the value of bonds.”  They snapped back.

“Alright, would you please explain what all this means?”, Stephen asked then impatiently.  The Ancient One’s face was a mask of contemplation. 

“On six worlds in the Known Universe there were species who made use of metaphysical bonds to maintain healthy social structures.  They tended to be insular and tribal, but, when the need arose could work together by knowing instinctively who to follow and listen to.  The metaphysical links allowed them to share knowledge, pool intelligence and work together as almost one being.  Between Bor and Odin only one species remains, those of Jotunheim.  The Frost Giants.  Asgard feared what they could not understand.  People who could outwit them on the battlefield even when facing superior numbers and strength, terrified them.  They eradicated these species early in their evolution or went to war with them in overwhelming numbers, in one instance Bor destroyed a whole solar system just to succeed.  Humanity’s unique genetic structure allows them, more than any other species, the ability to produce viable interspecies offspring.  Overwhelmingly, such children will appear human but carry the most useful traits of the alien species in their blood.  Imagine humanity with the ability to wield low level magics and create mental bonds with each other.  If they were to take the dynamic structure the Frost Giants needed just to survive as a species, they would be stronger than you could imagine.”

Stephen frowned.

“What do you mean by dynamic structure?  And what exactly do these bonds do?”

Loki leaned forward and met the wizard’s eyes.  It seemed if fell to him to explain.

“To Asgardians, they were viewed as lesser beings, no more than a step above animals.  Family or tribal structure was built on instinctual mental bonds.  Some people were natural leaders, others followers, some had natural instincts to protect and support and then there are the true hearts of each group, those who nurtured and cared for the tribe and were drawn to the leaders, ensuring the strongest offspring possible to carry on the genetic superiority of the best the tribe has to offer.  The bonds and the natural roles each instinctively know, means little infighting, which for aggressive species increases their chances of survival.  Everyone understands their place in the social structure and is happy in it.  When it comes to war, to defending territory, they can overcome even those who have greater numbers or better weaponry because they will work together with almost a hive mind guiding their actions.  Imagine knowing exactly where each of your brethren was on the battlefield, knowing and seeing the battle from each perspective at once and being able to give orders and instructions over distance without giving away positions to the enemy.  Perhaps an analogy might help.  Imagine a telepathic wolf pack, if you will, evolved past individual intelligence by the ability to pool collective knowledge and understanding.  If that particular trait was allowed to flourish and spread six thousand years ago there is no real telling how far it could potentially evolve and change in that time.”

“You’re talking about changing my entire species.”  Stephen said angrily.

“We’re talking about making you stronger, it’s a chance at survival. A chance to turn the tide of war in our favour.”  The Norns retorted sternly.

“How would we even accomplish it?”  Stephen asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.

“It means sacrifice, we would have to draw Odin’s forces out of Midgard before he went on his final cleansing.  I believe I could do it, it would take most of my power, but I do think I could banish both Asgardian and Frost Giant from earth before Odin could take those last measures.  We would have to hope he would be too distracted to bother going back after.”  The Ancient once voiced nonchalantly.

“Odin’s blood lust was sated after he found me in the temple on Jotunheim, I could use my magic to keep him distracted long enough there to find my younger self and keep him from thinking of returning to Midgard.”  Loki contributed softly.

“But what will happen to the timeline?  There are people who we know are integral to his potential defeat.  How will you ensure that they are born?”  Strange questioned, wondering if what they were discussing was really as viable as the others seemed to believe.

“We see all, we know all.  Each possibility can be predicted.  We will ensure the correct outcome, we have the power to meddle where we must.  But we will need the help of you, Loki, to hide our interference from the eyes of the Gate Keeper, lest he report it to Odin and we are lost.  You, Loki,  will be our agent on the mortal plane.  Your help will also be required Doctor Strange, to deliver the time stone to Thanos himself.”

“Is there really no other way?”  Stephen asks eventually, shoulders slumped in defeat.

“No, we have been through this many times and still it ends the same.  You must return to Titan.  Allow Thanos to do what he will.  When he uses the gauntlet, it will, unknown to him, give us a back door through which we will reorder time.”

The Ancient One held out her hand to Stephen.  “Come we must place some spells on the Time Stone so that when Thanos joins it to the gauntlet we can access the power to do what we need to be done, it will take both of us.”

He follows her in a daze, not quite sure how this has come about at all.

 

 

“How is it that you are here?”  He asks her, frowning as he tried to puzzle out the problem before him.

“I have yet to die the death you watched.  I stepped out of reality and time during the fight with Kaecilius, when I return, I will have fulfilled my part in this and all will happen as you witnessed.”

“And my death, when Thanos uses the gauntlet?”

“A necessary sacrifice to ensure the tainted stone is delivered.”

“You and the Norns, you’ve had this all planned out for a while now, haven’t you?”

In that moment as he looks at her, she seems all the years he knows she has lived.

“Do you know why they call me the Ancient One?”

Again, Stephen frowns.  “Because no one really knew how old you were.”

“As a child I was gifted in magic, in walking the mirror dimension.  When war was upon us and Asgard and Jotunn fought a war that tore my home and people apart I escaped to the Mirror Dimension, The Norns found me there and guided me to them, they knew I would be needed in the future, they made sure I alone survived.  I was born before our people had written history, in a time of Gods and Monsters and now it has come full circle and once again we live in a time of Gods and Monsters.”

From the corner of his eye he looked at her, trying to see beyond and then it shimmered into existence for just a moment.  Her skin took on a pale blue tone and golden lines etched over her skin in a curious tribal pattern before he blinked and she was once more as she always had been.

“You were one of the children Odin wanted to slaughter, the only one to escape.”

“Yes.”  She agreed, pleased that he had understood.  “My father was a powerful Chieftain, in what is now called Scandinavia, my mother, a priestess and sorceress in Lauffey’s court.  I am truly ancient, I have lived long past my time.  Promise me Dr Strange, that you will do what must be done, no matter how wrong you would believe it to be.  In order to win, all of us will have to make sacrifices, sometimes we will have to sacrifice others.  People, good people will suffer for our actions, but in the end our choices will decide between all life in the universe and none.  You gave up your craft and your hands to carry on as Supreme Sorcerer, protector of earth, now you will have to give up so much more to protect all life in our dimension.  Can you do what must be done?”

With a heavy heart Stephen reached for the Time Stone and laid it on the table between them.

“I was a surgeon before I was a sorcerer, more than most I understand that we can’t save everyone.  It’s triage, on a larger scale, but the method remains the same.  Save those with the best chance of survival.  I can do it.”

“Good, then we should…”

“Wait, one more question.”  He interrupted her.  She nodded in acquiesce.

“You’ve seen this possible timeline, the altered one.  Am I still….”  He trailed off, unsure what he was truly asking.  If he lived?  Died?  Was even born?  If he had become a sorcerer or never had the accident in the first place?

The look she gave him was shuttered, but he could see there was something in his question that bothered her.

“You will still be you, no matter the name you claim or the profession you choose.  A version of you will still exist, live a full and happy life and become a hero.  This is all I can offer you, nothing else.”

He nodded as he listened, understanding immediately.  There would be no Stephen Strange in the new timeline.  His own existence would be one of those which could not be saved.  His resolve hardened in spite of the news.  There was no question that he would resist his fate, not when so much counted on him now to succeed.

“A small price to pay for the lives of so many others.”  He told her wistfully.

“A great price to pay.”  She corrected him.  “I can promise that it will not be in vain, that the entirety of the plan, although it will be our last shot at it, will succeed.”

 

A short time later as he handed the stone to Thanos he almost smiled.  He had played his part, his end was near.  He did his best to give Tony Stark hope, he knew there would be much pain left for the brave man before time resetting itself would cascade far enough into the future to erase this timeline.  Stark’s journey was going to be unbearably hard and ultimately for nothing.  As he watched the others dissolve into stardust he looked Stark in the eye and gave him the only apology he could.

“Tony, there was no other way.”

 

~~~~~~~~~

 

 

Strange had left a short while ago, leaving Loki, The Ancient One and the Norns to their own thoughts.  A sudden jolt of great magic ripped through the sanctuary.  Every bone in Loki’s body juddered. 

“It is time.”  The Norns stood, gathered the rising power into themselves and then stepped to the side, out of the pocket dimension and disappeared. 

“Where did they go?”  Loki demanded as he felt the pocket dimension begin to buckle.

“They were taken back to the start, gone ahead of us, there can never be two of themselves in one time stream, they are now again as they once were, three beings guiding the fate of all.  Their knowledge of this timeline locked until you go back to them.  You will be the messenger Loki, I know you will not let us down.”

Loki regarded her with a bewildered look at her seeming faith in him.

“I will go next, to banish the waring forces from Earth.  Good luck, God of Mischief, may we meet again, in better times.”

With a simple gesture she opened a hole in reality and stepped through, pulling a fair amount of the power sweeping through the room with her as she left, ready to meet her fate.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

She stepped out into cold and a rain of blood.  The sky filled with storm clouds and Odin in the distance bringing down his staff as he killed his enemies.  Gathering her power, she tapped into the ley lines of Midgard and using the echo of the Bifrost caught every  Jötnar and Asgardian alike in a swell of power and sent them all far from her home.  The echoing silence of the empty plain and the rush of power leaving brought her to her knees. 

“Hello child.”  She greeted herself as the tiny girl crawled out from under her mother’s broken shield.

She did not speak, only glared defiantly at her future self.

The Ancient One dug deep into the earth with her bare hands and using the power borrowed from the infinity gems healed and renewed the damage wrought by the Asgardians and Jotnar alike.  Into the sacred places, deep wells of magic sprang into being.  Across the Earth people who were injured or dying were saved and healed.  The cold receded further north and for the next hundred years mild winters and bountiful harvests would allow the fledgling population to grow.  It was the best she could do for her kind, ensure that four or five generations lived well, in health and without the threat of starvation.  It would be enough she thought, as she scried in a puddle of ice water, glimpses of the future showed as the first Alpha rose.  It had worked.  For a time, she sat in the cold mud, staring unseeing into the distance, gathering her strength for her last trip.  Her younger counterpart standing vigil over her, watching her every action, slowly lost her hostility as the sun’s shadow passed over head.  Finally The Ancient One stood, brushing off the dirt as best she could from her robes, soft clouds of dust bursting in the air as her magic drove it from the rich fabric.  Returned to her usual immaculate appearance she finally looked upon herself once more.

“I have a gift for you, little one.”  She reached into her pocket and drew out The Eye, it looked newly forged, which it was.   She leaned down and pressed the gift into the hands of the child and whispered hurried instruction in her ear, before taking off her spare sling ring and slipping it into the fold of the child's tunic.  Meeting her own eyes, so young and without artifice, was unsettling, but she wanted to ensure the wisdom she imparted would be remembered.

“Remember each step is a blessing, each moment, a miracle and every person you meet important in some way, no matter how great or small.  When you find the time stone, hide it well, use its power sparingly and only in times of great need.  May the Norns guide your feet Dis, be well.”

The Ancient one straightened and turned to leave reluctantly.

“We are going to die.”  The child’s words stopped her suddenly, the surety of her voice ringing in her ears.

“Yes.  For me, this is the end of my journey, but for you it is only the beginning.  All things come to pass in time, yours is many years ahead.”  She tells herself kindly, a fleeting look of regret passes over her features.  She hopes this version of her will make different choices, even if her ultimate fate remains the same.

“Was it a good life?”

The Ancient One smiled.

“It was an adventure.”   She says truthfully, a glint of mischief in her eye as the little girl smiles back at her hopefully.

With that, she departed, travelling forward with the last of her power, merging with her future self briefly, before they faced their former pupil.    For an instant she lives out the memory of the life of the child she left behind only moments ago and she smiles peacefully as her soul departs.

 

 

~~~~~

Loki felt the walls of reality crumbling even in this place and steeled himself before creating a doorway, placing a hand in the knob he concentrated on the event of his birth and pushed through, folding the last of the power into himself as he walked the hidden paths.  He cloaked himself immediately and watched as his younger self was born.  Not wanting to see the rejection he knew would happen he tried to leave swiftly.  Before he could vanish the voice of the woman who had birthed him stopped him in his tracks.  His heart beat wildly in his chest and he shuddered, turning slowly, hoping that what he had heard was some auditory hallucination.  It was not to be.  The woman on the bed, cradled him gently in her arms. 

“Loki, Prince of Asgard and Jotennheim.  God of Mischief and Chaos.”  Hela crooned softly. 

Loki wavered for only a moment more before leaving, his understanding of himself and his family a little clearer than before.  Odin and his secrets, he really did cover everything up, didn’t he?

 

Loki took his leave, his mission now ready to be completed.  He quickly found the armies fighting in the great ice canyon a few hundred miles from the capital.  For the next yearr he wove spell after spell and kept out of sight of both Jotun and Asgardian, keeping them occupied and turning their thoughts far from Midgard.  Odin was the hardest to influence but he had done so once before when he had banished him to Earth before his death.  Finally, he watched as Laufey placed him in the temple and left him to die. Soon after he saw Odin approach and stop when hearing the cries of the child.  Odin found the child and for one horrible moment Loki thought he would kill the babe rather than console it, but in the end the Allfather lifted the tiny Jotun into his arms and gently stroked his cheek.  The ripple of magic at the touch turned the blue infant’s skin a pale golden hue, like that of the man who held him. 

“Loki.”  The Allfather sighed sadly, Hela’s hammer secured to his belt. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Interlude: History

 

The appearance of the pack dynamic was a subtle thing.  It happened on the fringes of the world.  The north of the British Isles among the Picts which became the Clan’s, the nomadic tribes on the African plains and Arabian Deserts, the Maori and Aborigines, the tribes of both North and South America, among the Vikings.

The Alpha’s rose first, charismatic and powerful men and woman who were natural born leaders and warriors.  Their voices enough to sway even the most stubborn, loyalty given absolutely to them as they proved themselves to be exactly what the people needed.  They were alone at first, all of them searching for something they couldn’t name.  Then came the Omega’s.  Mostly women, who were a perfect balance to the Alpha’s who were drawn to them by their scent.  Voices of reason and compassion, nurturers who felt the need to care for not just their Alpha but all those who followed them.  Omega’s became prized for their ability to calm and sooth even the most dangerous among the tribes and clans.  They were treated with respect and love, protected at all times because they were the glue that held everything else together.  Omega’s were always healthy and strong, none died in childbirth and nearly always they would give birth to twins and triplets.  They were seen by their packs as blessed by the gods.  Beta’s appeared next, the urge to build bonds between themselves and Alpha’s was strong, they looked for leadership, direction, they felt most settled when they had a strong leader to follow, they enforced the Alpha’s laws, ensured the compliance of the rest of the clan or tribe.  They were foot soldiers and healers and scholars.  The idea and reality of pack became set in stone.   Alpha’s naturally had more children than others, some even took more than one Omega to mate, it could be difficult but worked as Omega’s didn’t tend to be threatened by each other.  Their children were stronger, less likely to die in infancy and went on to become the next generation of the pack.  No child born to someone with an Alpha or Omega was normal. 

Over time as people spread out and others married into and out of the tribes and clans, so too did their genetic uniqueness.  Then slowly, their influence covered the globe.  Those born with the instincts to form packs naturally rose to positions of power or influence.  They pushed out the non-designate humans with ease.  Power, true power, was the banding together of good leaders, strong warriors and shrewd and intelligent people, forming packs they had the strength to overthrow their baseline human counterparts.  There was no need for political manoeuvring within pack structure, everyone knew and was happy with their place, they bonded with their pack mates forming friendships and relationships which were unassailable.  They couldn’t be bribed or bought or even blackmailed.  They could smell a lie or deception without effort.   In other words, all the things that had previously bought power were null and void.  

For hundreds of years the pack system flourished.  By the 1000’s it had spread across Europe, Asia and Russia.  Some of the strongest packs banded together and formed alliances over larger territories.  Then came the great courts.  Alpha and Omega pairs who somehow rose higher and gained the allegiance of other packs.  They were called royal and took the title of Kings and Queens.  Their courts made up of lesser packs who held territory in their name. 

Then came the great plague and resentment and distrust festered in the shadows.  The powerful were safe in their great palaces and castles, the majority of those who died from the plague were poor and non-designate.  But those who wanted change were clever and patient.  They couldn’t bring down the structure of the world head on.  No one could hope to defy the Alpha’s and live in a fight, so they resorted to spying, gathering information, stirring unrest, planting evidence that started wars, poisoned those they could reach, assassinated others from a distance. 

As people flocked to the cities it became easier to cause disruption to the hierarchy of power.  When large groups lived together side by side in tiny slums and apartments pack structure broke down a little.  The norm became a smaller pack structure make up of only family.  Less and less alliances were made and society changed, new ideas of democracy emerged, of the loosening of the reigns of power.  Where Royals held tightly, they were forced out by revolutions and slowly baseline humans made their way into power.  They were viewed for the most part as being neutral.  Unlikely to rule in the favour of one pack or another and so were given more trust and influence.  By the early twentieth century the last of the Pack Royals were dead and gone or weakened so greatly the power they held was merely ceremonial.   The Romanov Alpha and Omega were assassinated and their children too, the rest of the pack scattered to the wind, broken and separated by distance.  The Grand Duke Ferdinand who had held central Europe together by his will alone was murdered in broad daylight and it sparked a war that spanned a continent.  

They worked so carefully for a hundred years but it was WW1 where they finally tipped their hand, even though they didn’t realise it. 

Humans liked records, everything neatly kept and filed and recorded.  This was the mistake they made, just the one.  It drew the attention of a man who for most of his life would be mostly unremarkable and quickly forgotten when he died and yet far in the future, children would read about what little they knew of him and remember him as an unsung hero.  The man who discovered The Conspiracy and collected enough evidence to help The Old Guard stop the genocide of a species.

 

Roderick Alleyn joined the British Army in 1914.  His education at Eton and Oxford afforded him a commission as an officer.  Thankfully the young man was a bright minded individual and sharper than many would give him credit for.  His boyish good looks made many a person see only what they wanted and hid the mind underneath.  After the war he was recruited to the Foreign Service which was a fancy title for international spy, and spy he did.  Only he saw something no one else had noted.  He was a shrewd and savvy criminal investigator, he could spot patterns and make leaps of logic others couldn’t or didn’t.  While on desk duty after an injury he ended up in the records department, what he found there would one day change the course of a war that had been fought entirely one sided for the last hundred years.  It was all there in the deployment records of army, navy and air force, death tolls and honourable discharges.  When he realised what he was seeing he knew his life would be forfeit if they discovered him, but his instincts ran high. 

He was an Omega, the reality he was now aware of went against every instinct he had, they were trying to destroy his people, it was a slow genocide of a species, his species.  He gathered the evidence slowly over decades, compiled reports, cultivated trusted contacts who passed information to him.  He knew he would never be able to expose them in his lifetime and he grieved again when WW2 started, he could see what was coming, that they were starting again, another cull of the herd.  On the front lines of both wars, Alphas and Beta’s were sent to die.  Any packs formed, were again, put directly in harm’s way.  The whispers and rumours of Pack Royal’s forming came and went as men or woman died mysteriously and conveniently. 

A chance encounter with an American colonel came about, the man deep in his cups in an officer’s club shared with him his horror at his own governments directives to effectively neutralise packs with too much influence.  The man was genuinely abhorrent of the practice he had begun to piece together.  Horrified because he was the commanding officer over one such pack.  A pack that had featured in newsreels and had strong public support and approval. 

Alleyn knew this was his chance to get the information he had out to the right people.  This pack, a potential Pack Royal with an unspoken King and Queen could be the only chance he would see.  So, he took that chance and passed the files and location of evidence to Chester Philips.  The file which would then, one day, months later, be handed to a clearly outraged and upset Alpha who had just had the fate of the world placed on her shoulders.  That night in a pub in Southampton she and her pack mates read the files and knew immediately what the stakes would be.  They had no choice but to act on this eventually.  Fate had lead them to this information and none of them thought it was a coincidence after more of the future was revealed to them by Darcy, their Queen whether she knew it or not.  So, they formed a pact, with each other, to their leaders, with the other packs they had met and formed alliances with.  

The first steps they took were on the surface, trivial.  They kept in touch with the other packs they had allied with during the war, exchanged Christmas cards, attended weddings and funerals and christening, all very normal and unassuming.  Behind closed doors the most trusted were shown and informed of the greatest conspiracy the world had hidden, none took it well, but all agreed that they would keep quiet and reaffirmed their commitment and fealty in abstention to the Barnes pack.  The Old Guard was born, and it spread out across the world, never showing it’s hand or allowing their knowledge to escape.  They worked in silence and slowly learned how to conceal their loyalties and ties, two could play this game and now they knew what the game was, they would win.  No one threatened pack and got away with it, it was just a matter of time.

Peggy Carter visited Allyen one day in the late spring 1949.  Now that she knew that her Alpha and Omega were both safe in the future, protected by power and wealth and a group of people Darcy had described to her as heroes she felt it was time to take the gloves off and get to the bottom of the sordid mystery which had landed in her lap five years before.  A dying Roderick Alleyn invited her in and took her to a hidden room where his years of evidence was gathered, over tea he explained it all in detail and how he thought it had begun and what the end game of the whole thing was.  Sitting in the basement of an old stately home in Kent, Peggy felt her world waver for a moment before resolve filled her.  The Alpha in her head was more furious than she had ever felt it, the startled whine from Alleyn broke her from her near feral state and she patted his hand in apology and comfort.  She gave him a grim smile and slowly gathered her thoughts.  There was work to be done.

 

 

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November 2018, Stark Tower (Three Day's After Darcy's Return)

 

Steve waited in the lobby of the Tower.  The rain outside was pounding off the pavement and the dark clouds had left the morning languishing in a sort of bleak half-light.  Other than the security Maria had stationed down here he was alone.  Alone and waiting with only his thoughts for company.  He didn’t like to think he was the sort to brood, but if anyone observing him now was to describe what he looked like brooding would be accurate.  There were many reasons for this.  His whole world had been turned upside down in only a few days. The wait in the hallway while Darcy was in surgery had been a good opportunity for them all to talk, catch up on what they missed while running hither and yon for information or building tech or planning missions.  Grant Ward and Lexie had been a font of information.  The thought of Lizzie with a grandson as old as he was seemed incomprehensible.  That she and the rest of the pack were still miraculously alive because of Darcy was mind boggling.  The thought of seeing all their old friends and family again after so long was nerve racking.  But a kind of burgeoning hope was rising in his heart.  Ward had passed along a message from Peggy that she would be delayed a few days, so here he was three days after Darcy’s rescue waiting for Peggy, which is why he’s sitting in the Lobby at 7am am on a Sunday.  Ward’s brief words to him on Peggy were succinct.  He hadn’t seen her in a few years, but he had heard she was undercover on a mission somewhere.  That sounded like Peg, never sitting still, always doing her part. 

He tried to think of what he could possibly say to her after all the time that has passed for her.  He saw her, however briefly just yesterday.  For Peggy it has been seventy years.  From what he could infer from the things Ward had told him she had been a very active leader for their pack.  Looking after everyone, running an agency so covert it was nameless and taking highly dangerous missions again and again.  He’s honest enough that he’d made peace that the woman who he’s meant to meet toady might not be the same one he left, that loved him.  He wouldn’t hold it against her if she had decided to move on, seventy years was a long time.

Before he had made his way down to the lobby Maria had pulled him aside and handed him an envelope. 

“This is from the woman you knew as Peggy Carter, the one whose funeral you attended.  She took Agent Carters place permanently in 1948.  Her name was Dottie Underwood.  Peggy asked me to pass this on to you once things had settled down.  Dottie wrote it for you.  I don’t know what’s in it, but Peggy seemed insistent that you read it.”

“You’ve been in on all this too?”  he had asked her, a frown of disquiet plain on his face.

Maria had smiled tightly back at him.

“I have always been loyal to the Old Guard.  I was trained under Peggy Carter straight out of the Academy.  I learned a lot from her.  Later I was brought in under Fury on Peggy’s recommendation.  For what it’s worth I’m sorry for the deception.  I trusted that there were reasons for what we were doing, good ones that couldn’t be explained at the time.  When Darcy went missing it all started to add up.  I don’t think you have anything to worry about Captain, she’s watched over you all as best she could for years.  In the time I’ve known her there have always been two pictures on her desk.  One of Darcy, Peggy and two little girls and of You and Peggy.  There was never a day that went by that I didn’t find her staring at that picture.  She has missed you, very much.”

“Thank you Maria.”  He told her

 

The letter was short. 

 

Dear Captain Rogers, Steve,

You don’t know me, not really, but I know you.  I felt dreadfully heartless to have deliberately caused you the pain of knowing me.  I took Peggy’s place long ago in order for her to play the role she needed to.  When you came to visit the care home I played my part, just as we had both agreed I would.  I have listened to Peggy’s stories of you for nearly seventy years, I feel sometimes as though I knew you just as she did.  You are a good man, but still only human.  I hope that this apology, for that is what it is, will reach you.  I am sorry for any part I had in harming you.  I am sorry that when I die you most likely will believe that I am the one whom you loved.  I am sorry that have suffered so in this life. 

Forgive her.  Forgive Peggy for what she had to do.  Had there been any other way she would have found it.   She has been my friend, loyal and true and honest.  I am so glad that she will have you going forward.  Her life had been a hard one.  She had been true to you for seventy years.  You were the only man she ever loved and I think ever will love.  Look after her for me.  Help her carry the burden she took on.  Protect her, she is stubborn to a fault.  But most of all, be her friend, she needs that most of all. 

Be good to each other,

Fondly

Yelena Belova, the original Black Widow.

 

The way she spoke of Peggy as her friend was telling.  Peggy was the reason she had written the letter, it was clear that Dottie had loved Peggy and treasured her friendship.  She had been a great actress, he had never questioned who she was.  She had pulled it off because she had listened to Peggy talk about him, for seventy years.  It was a long time to love someone.  Peggy must have trusted her a great deal.  He wishes he could tell her there was nothing to forgive.  That he would do as she asked and be everything that Peggy needed.  He hoped that where ever she was now she would know that. 

Just as the clock struck nine a black town car pulled up outside the tower.  Steve stood from the chair and moved until he had a better view of the doors.  The driver came round and opened the back passenger door, helping a woman out from the car.  Behind her another man followed.  He couldn’t make out the faces through the rain covered glass walls of the lobby and he held his breath as the two people came through the doors.

She was wearing a dark wool coat, a red scarf adding colour to the outfit, her head was turned back, exchanging words with the man who came with her.  it was the sound of her voice that confirmed it for him.

“Good lord Howard, you’ll be fine.  Anthony is a perfectly rational and reasonable man, I’m sure this really won’t be as bad as you think it will.  I still think you should have brought Rebecca, she’d have stopped you from saying anything st…...”  she cut off mid word as her eyes found him. 

He drank her in.  Her hair was different.  She’d dyed it a dark blond, if fell in waves down her back, much longer than she had ever worn it before.  Yesterday she had looked as though she were 21, today she clearly looked older, perhaps her mid-thirties.  She was still a beautiful as ever, her face was a little leaner, her cheek bones more prominent, her jawline a little sharper. 

“Hello Peggy.”

“Steve.”  Her voice was hesitant, as though she wasn’t sure how she would be received.

They stood there, neither one of them moving, both unsure what to do.  Howard however huffed and shook his head.  Idiots.  He placed a hand in the small of her back and pushed her forward. 

Peggy’s feet seemed to carry her across the lobby without thought, she didn’t have to go far, Steve crossed the distance between them in long strides, sweeping her up in his arms, her feet lifting off the ground.  She had forgotten how tall he was, how strong he was.  Her arms held tightly to his neck as they hugged.  She felt the bond that had lain dormant for decades awaken, felt his mind touch hers gently, looking for reassurance.  How could he ever doubt her?  She had loved him from the moment she had met him, small, skinny and filled with grit. 

“You’re right on time.”  He said, slowly lowering her to the ground.  His grip around her waist was firm, her body pressed to the length of his, her hands splayed on his chest as she looked up at him.

“Well, I couldn’t leave my best guy waiting.”  The smile he gave her was blinding.  God she had missed him, only being able to see him from a distance or in photographs had been torture.

“I believe I owe you a dance Agent Carter.”  He flirted.

“With interest, Captain Rogers.  I think you’ll find it’s a great deal more than just a dance.”  Her eyes sparkled with humour.

Steve grinned down at her.  “You haven’t changed a bit Peggy, I missed you.”

“Damn it Steve, I promised I wasn’t going to cry.”  Her grip tightened on his shirt and he could feel her nails dig into his chest, her scent swirling with agitation.   “I missed you too, you great lump.  Now is it too much for a girl to expect her guy to kiss her when they’ve been apart for so long?”  Steve grinned and pulled her up, spinning her around.

“No ma’am.”  He captured her lips in his and kissed her.  For the first time since his plane went down, Steve Rogers felt as though he were finally doing the right thing, that he was exactly where he was meant to be.

 

 


	2. Picking Up The Pieces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reunions and revelations, remembering and reconnecting. And everyone trying to pick up the pieces they left behind.   
> This is long chapter, 20000 words, so grab a cuppa and and a cookie and enjoy.

Picking Up The Pieces.

 

Howard didn’t bother to wait and see how the reunion between Peggy and Steve went, he knew without a doubt that it would work out just fine.  It was his own reunion with his son that was in question.  He entered the elevator and the doors closed behind him.

“Good Afternoon Mr Stark, how may I help?”  Jarvis asked from his speakers.  Howard startled for a moment before grinning.  He’s heard about Jarvis; an AI that Tony had built to help him run things.  It was an incredible creation. 

“I’d like to see Tony, Jarvis.  Could you let him know I’m on my way up?  I don’t think it would be a good idea to spring it on him too fast.”

“I concur Mr Stark, Sir would probably like a little more warning for this reunion.  It has though already come to Sir’s attention that you could be alive. He asked me to direct you to his office in the event you appeared.”

“Thank you, Jarvis.”

The wait as the elevator made its way to the 65th floor seemed longer than it was.  Howard had spent years worrying about this moment.  What he would say, what Tony might say.  None of the scenarios were good.  He just hoped that something could be built out of the ashes.

 

###

 

Tony was absorbed in the readings that had been taken of the portal when Jarvis alerted him to his father’s return. 

“Sir, protocol Lazarus has been activated, I have directed the gentleman to your office.”

“Shit.”  Tony muttered under his breath.  Bruce merely raised a brow in question.  Tony made his excuses as politely as possible and took the stairs up to the penthouse.  There was no way he was facing his father in jeans and grease stained Metallica t-shirt. 

 

When the initial furore of Darcy’s return had died down Tony had processed the implications of Barnes pack still being alive and kicking, he had wondered about his father.  Howard had been there, had known Darcy, known what she was to him.  The question of whether the old man had bonded with Darcy when he wouldn’t bond with her pack was the biggest.  The other questions surrounding it were also difficult to determine.  Was the tether only active through pack bonds, or did it count personal familial bonds too?  How had Darcy made these bonds in the first place?  Barnes had been understandably MIA for the last 72 hours, not about to leave Darcy’s side unless someone pried her from his cold dead fingers, so there had been no answers from that corner.

When Tony had looked in on them earlier, he had found a cute puppy pile of limbs on the over-sized hospital bed, three brunettes and a red head cosily tucked up and purring like a basket of sleepy kittens.  The tabloids would get a kick out of that if they could see it.  The Winter Soldier in all his glory, curled up in bed with his wife and daughters.   When Darcy had opened her pack bonds a few days before he and the rest of his pack had all felt as though something had shifted for them too.  The Soul Stone and all the side effects attached to it were numerous.  The biggest of course being that those who had a bond with Darcy were somehow tethered to her, to life.  To put it simply the idea of his father still being around had hit him like a ton of bricks.

Pepper had sensed his conflict and unease as had Bruce.  After, once everyone was sleeping, he’d spoken to them, voiced his concerns and listened to the two voices of reason in his life.  They more than anyone else understood just how conflicted he was feeling.  On the one hand, his father being alive would be a miracle, an opportunity to mend fences, to…   He left that train of thought.  _If,_ his father was alive. 

It had been academic until Jarvis informed him that Howard was on his way up to the office.  He stood in front of the full-length mirror and inspected the cut of his suit.  The designer suit had been his armour long before he built the Iron Man suit.  It had been his way of holding off the world.  Dress to impress, to disarm, to throw the rest of society off their game.  It was his mask, his crutch, one he had used and employed religiously since his parents’ deaths.  Now he was using it to face his father.  In truth the only man he had ever needed to impress, wanted to impress.  The one thing he felt he had never managed in his life was getting his father’s approval.

It shouldn’t matter now.  He knew who he was.  He knew his own worth.  In the last ten years he had changed, finally become the man he wanted to be.  He would never make apologies for who he was, that wasn’t him.  He was an Alpha, he was Iron Man.  He had a pack he loved, a mate he adored, and he knew exactly how the people in his life that really mattered felt about him.   

Tony sat on the edge of the bed absentmindedly rubbing his left arm.  His father had been missing one way or another for most of his life.  The man had drank and buried himself in work.  When he had noticed Tony at all, he had looked at him as though searching for something and finding it absent.  It had bothered him more than he liked to admit; that it had stung, that he hadn’t been what the old man wanted. 

Now with knowledge and hindsight he wondered if what Howard had been looking for was exactly who he was now.  If Darcy had spoken about him, even in general terms, it would have been with affection, admiration and love.  Who’s to say that he would ever have become the man he was today if his father had been better at being a parent.  Maybe Tony would never have striven so hard to be better without that need. 

He looked at the clock, he’s been up here for half an hour lost in his own head, trying to talk himself into going down there.  A gentle knock sounded at the door.  Pepper stood there, leaning gently in the frame.  Her head cocked to one side a compassionate smile gracing her beautiful face.

“Jarvis told me.”  She didn’t need to say it, he had already figured it out.

“Yeah, the late great Howard is chilling in my office waiting.”  His tone was bitter, anger curling around the room in his scent.

“He won’t be the man you remember.”

He frowned at her and considered her words.

“You aren’t either.  You aren’t the son in his father’s shadow anymore.  You changed, you grew up, you became a hero.”

“I am not a hero.”

“Yes, you are.  You might not like the label, but you are a hero.  Outsiders might not always get it right, but they do understand what you are, the whole world has seen it.  Watched as you risked your life, sometimes to the point where no one thought you could come back from it, for the world.  You have saved and inspired so many Tony.  I don’t know what you’ll find down there in that office, but I don’t believe for a minute that Howard will be any less in awe of you than everyone else is.  He might never have said it before, but he must be proud of you, how could he not be?”

Tony stood and brushed off his trousers, squared his shoulders and sighed. 

“I have to go down there and face him.  Why do I still want his approval Pep?  I’m a grown man.”

“You just want what every kid wants, a father that loves you.  He just didn’t know how to say it or show it.  But he’s here now, he didn’t have to be and the first person he wants to see is you.  You might be surprised by what he wants, maybe seeing him is exactly what you both need.  Hiding up here though?  It’s not going to do you any good.”

He knew she was right, she always was.  Pepper stood in front of him and rubbed careful hands down his arms before straightening his tie.  He rested his forehead against hers and smiled.

“What would I do without you?”

“Let’s hope we never find out.”  She said rubbing her cheeks to his.

“I love you Pep.”

“I love you too Tony, always.”

Time to face the music.

 

###

 

Howard was examining the Stark Expo model when he became aware that his son had entered the room.  The two men faced each other, neither saying a word. 

Right now, Howard looked younger than Tony had ever known him, the sight of his father, young and vital and strong, it shook him for a moment.  Tony could see his own appearance had shaken the other man just as much.

Tony had changed in the years since Howard had seen him last.  It wasn’t just that he was older.  The way he held himself, steady and sure, he dominated the room with his presence.  He radiated the Alpha and projected it the way very few he had met before could.  His son, the amalgam of a lifetime of mistakes, Howards mistakes, had become something significantly more than the sum of his parts.   But what could he possibly say to him now?  What words of apology could possibly make up for the way he had pulled himself away from Tony, the way he had ignored him and the unrealistic expectations he had heaped upon a teenage boy?  For all people told him that Tony was just like him they didn’t get that the reality was completely different. 

Tony was nothing like him, neither of his children were.  They craved pack and family, they valued friendships and bonds to a degree he could never really fully grasp.  Their instincts told them to reach out to others, people not their family, to find trust and companionship with others like themselves. But that was the crux of it.  He had never had that need.  Howard had valued knowledge, pushing the limits of understanding over most things. His need to be sovereign only to himself, that had guided him through life.  He could empathise with the need to have strong links to others, but for him the idea of being subject to another’s will was uncomfortable.   He had never felt the instinct to bond with an Alpha, he was a loner. 

That didn’t mean he had no love or appreciation for pack, he just preferred to go his own way.  Peggy had understood that, understood his need for independence.   He knew it had frustrated her at times, that he would reject their protection, their shared sense of unity.  Rebecca had never forced it on him either, she had understood that part of him and had never made him feel lesser for it.  The idea of being linked to so many different people, of giving part of himself away scared him.  Being part of a pack meant exposing yourself to a certain level of intimacy.   He found he was happiest being pack adjacent, accepted by them but not obligated to them the way they were to each other.  Howard craved his own space, needed his mind to be his own. 

Tony had built this Tower and had his pack surrounding him day in and out, living in the same space as the majority of his pack mates and had done so for six years.  During the war Darcy had insisted that her pack were housed together, keeping a separate barracks for the Howling Commandos that she could oversee and run like a proper den.  Barnes had been comfortable with it too, he had enjoyed having his people in sight most of the time.  It made sense, Darcy had learned from Tony how pack worked, it was his example that nurtured her instincts to build a den for her family, to keep them close.   He’d heard Peggy and Dugan and Falsworth bitch about it often enough, that it wasn’t the same without them all sharing the same space.  That they missed the closeness, the sense of security and comfort it brought them to be together.  The disconnect they had lived with, he knew, made all of them unhappy, made them anxious and slightly paranoid.    Howard briefly wondered how they would organise things now that is was safe for them to come back together. 

Across the room, Tony cleared his throat and Howard startled for a moment.  He’d been lost in his own head, again.  He looked away from Tony and stuffed his hands in his pockets.  How his son was making him feel like an errant toddler was unsettling, and he could see it in the way Tony held himself that it was Howards move, his responsibility to start.  For all that he could charm most people without much trouble it would do him little good here.  Tony had always seen through him, even as a child he had left Howard feeling exposed with just a cock of his head.  There would be little good now in trying to bullshit his way out of the apology he needed to make, the apology his son deserved long ago.  If he wanted to truly make things right with Tony he had to be honest, blunt.

“I’m an asshole.  I’ve always been an asshole and I’m too old to stop being one now.  I’m not trying to cop out of admitting to the mistakes I made with you, or any of the other mired ones I’ve made before or since.”  He paused and raised his eyes to meet Tony’s. “I’m sorry.  I know the words mean little, but I am.  Sorrier than I can ever make up for.  I don’t expect anything from you, I don’t have that right.  I know you don’t need a father, Darcy didn’t need one either, she had you.  But I hope, that maybe, in time, we could be friends…”

Howard watches his son carefully, not entirely sure of how he was about to react. 

“You were a shit parent.” 

Even though he had been expecting it, the sudden honest truth cut like a knife.  Trust a Stark to be blunt in the most brutal of ways.

“I was.”  There was no point in denying it, he had spent a large chunk of the decades since his first death trying to figure out where it all went wrong for him.  In the end the only conclusion he could come to was that he had become someone he had despised.  He watched as Tony digested his quick admittance as though he had been expecting an argument.  If this had been 1990 he would have had one, but Howard had changed in that time, he’d become more self aware, worked harder to curb decades long ingrained habits that did nothing but bring him unhappiness.

Tony moved to the window behind his desk, the silence gathering in the room, growing thick with tension, his voice travelled across the space between them, cutting through it like a blade.

“I get it now, I know what all that nattering on about Steve was.  You tried to give me an example of someone you counted as a hero because you were waiting for me to become one.”  His tone had started off thoughtful but it grew harder as he continued. “But I’m not Steve Rogers, I never could be.  He sees the world in black in white, there’s no grey area.  Me?  That grey area is where I’m most at home.”  Tony leaned on his desk and picked up an ornament, fiddling with the casing, all the nonchalance he was portraying a thin veneer over his obvious irritation.

“Steve was the best man I knew, I hoped telling you about him would inspire you.”  Howard was stubborn to the last as always.  Rebecca would have slapped him upside the head for digging his heels in over Steve.

Tony’s incredulous stare at his response made him feel about three inches tall.  His verbal response made him want to cringe in shame.

“It never did, it made me feel inadequate.  And now, after all the shit that’s went down in the last week, I have to ask, why him?  Why not Barnes? If you were looking for a shining example of bravery and loyalty, he fit that bill just as well.”  The words, though bitter, hid a genuine curiosity.

Howard hunched his shoulders, looking away from Tony and turned to look over the skyline, struggling with how to explain.  There was no easy way to put emotions into words that could adequately express the conflicting feelings he had about Barnes or the more positive one he had always felt with Steve, harder still to admit to your own sense of inadequacy.

“Barnes was always reserved, quiet, kept his own council for the most part.”  Howard pauses to gather his thoughts, to really find what he was trying to explain.

“I think he was probably different before Zola experimented on him.  When I knew him, he was serious and focused, you always got the feeling he was planning something, that mind of his always ticking over.  Darcy said he was more carefree, fun, before everything and Steve insisted that he used to be the life of the party, but that wasn’t the man I met.”  For a moment they shared a wry smile, neither of them able to imagine Barnes revelling in the spotlight.

“Don’t get me wrong, he’s a good man, a good Alpha but he would have watched the world burn to protect what was his and damn the consequences.”  Now that Tony understood, he liked to think he would do the right thing, but if it were his family, his pack on the line he would put them ahead of everyone else.  Howard continued.

“Steve was the guy I knew, he was my friend.  Steve never hesitated to do the right thing, even when it would hurt him.  It was easy to get to know him, he was always positive and forthright, he couldn’t tell a lie to save himself.  In some small part, I felt I had been part of making him great.  I met him before we gave him the serum, even then he had courage and a good heart, I thought that was what a hero was.” 

Even to his own ears the explanation rang hollow.  Tony apparently thought so too because as always, his son couldn’t help but keep poking at a wound until he understood what caused it. Howard watched a Tony circled the desk, seemingly mulling over his words, before laying the metal ornament down and bracing his hands on the polished wood.  Howard knew he’d made a miscalculation the moment their eyes met again, Tony was restraining himself, but barely.

“But Steve was never the man the media portrayed him as, you were there, you knew that, you knew it was Barnes that led the Commandos, he was the one running those missions really, the one the rest of the pack were looking to for direction.  He was an Alpha for fucks sake.  I don’t understand Steve Rogers, the guy’s a loose cannon.”  Tony stopped, driving back the residual loathing he felt for Steve. He continued more calmly.   

“Now Barnes, him I understand and as much as it might have galled me in the past to admit it, we are the same, him and me, cut from the same cloth.  Steve Rogers is an overgrown puppy with a martyr complex.”  The last came out through gritted teeth, his hand coming to hold his left arm. Tony might have accepted the blond Beta back to the Tower, might have struck a tentative truce with the man but there were some things which, though he might be able to move past with time, would never be forgotten.  Steve Rogers bringing that shield down on him with all his strength was one of them.  The damage done had almost killed him.  Without extremis Tony would only have had years left to live.  It was his best kept secret.  Only Jarvis, Helen, Happy and Peter knew the extent of his injuries.  Happy and Peter because they had been there on the jet home and Helen because he had needed a competent doctor to handle the procedure. 

Howard had forgotten how much Tony could get under his skin like no one else.  How his son always knew which question would cause the best reaction, the most damage.  It pushed Howards buttons and he gave up on managing the situation with grace.  Peggy was right he really should have brought Rebecca.

“You want the truth?”  Howard snapped.  

“Barnes scared the crap out of me.  He was a leader, people got too close to him and they wanted to stay there.  He had this charisma that drew you in, made you want to whine and bare your neck, looking for approval.  I hated it, so I kept my distance.  I was scared; of losing my identity and being consumed, being brought into a pack.”  He caught his breath and ran a shaking hand through his dark hair.

“I always preferred my own company, didn’t like taking orders.  God it’s hard to explain.  War is brutal, the constant fear, the uncertainty.  Alpha’s like Barnes, they could make all that disappear for you.  It would have been so easy to let him, to give in to the temptation….”  But he hadn’t, he’d stood his ground, happy with his own lot in life.  Howard had never thought the grass greener on the other side.

“Seventy years, and every one of his pack are desperate to have him back, they stayed loyal to him on a level I’ve never observed before or since, at least until you.”  The admission made Tony’s head jerk as he locked eyes with his father.

“I saw it in you, the same thing he had.”  Howard continued.  “Everyone wanted to be your friend, wanted to be close to you and it was nothing to do with the money or the fame.  You had that same inbuilt allure he had.  And your sister, she never shut up about you, you know?  I was twenty-five for god’s sake.  I had no idea how to be a father, not to her and not to you.  Do you know what it feels like to be jealous of your own son?”

Tony thought it might not be unlike the feeling he had about Howards relationship with Darcy.  He had been trying to ignore the idea that actually having Howard, her father, would mean that his own place in her life had changed.  Howards eyes burned into him with an intensity.  Then his father’s face seemed to shift as he understood exactly what Tony felt about the complicated relationship they shared with Darcy.  Howard smiled regretfully and went on.

 “I loved Darcy and although the situation was unusual, I tried my best to be there for her, but she didn’t need me to be her father, she certainly didn’t see me as one.”  Howard sat then, some of the anger and irritation fading until all that was left was a pained resignedness. 

“It was you she wanted whenever she was at her lowest, you and Pepper and Barnes.  She was dying when she told me about my death, that I’d never even see her born.  Rambling like a crazy person while the toxin shut down her system.  While she was out of it, she was calling your name, she wanted her daddy, but it wasn’t me, it was you.” 

Tony held his breath, relief and joy warring with pity for his father.  Howard kept going, his voice sorrowful.

“I wondered then, what it was that kept her so tethered to you so strongly, why she clung to her brother over me.  When you came along, I watched you, saw how you were with people and it all clicked.  You’re right, you and Barnes are exactly the same and just like him you scared the shit out of me-too Tony….”  Tony almost snorted at the look on Howards face, he hadn’t meant to put it like that, he could tell.

“ I.  fuck I’m, making this worse.  No matter my personal feelings I had no right to take my own insecurities and resentments out on you.  I could give you a litany of excuses to try and explain who I was then, I was an unhappy man, in a marriage I never really wanted and then I found out that I had a match.”  His voice became heavy with remembered pain and grief.  “She ran to the other side of the country and didn’t speak to me until after I’d died.  I was angry and alone and you terrified me because I wanted your approval Tony and I knew I’d never get it.”  All the fight went out of Howard then.  He felt stripped bare and exposed.  He waited patiently for Tony’s judgement.

Tony felt stunned by this admission.  That his father could ever have felt lesser or that he might have wanted Tony’s validation had never crossed his mind.  The thought of Howard keeping his distance because Tony unsettled him was new. 

His resentment at Tony stealing the place in Darcy’s life Howard thought he should have was childish but also understandable.

Then there was his parents marriage, he knew it had been an unhappy one, that was old news. 

His father having a match though?  For a brief moment he tried to imagine what it would have been like to find a match and not be able to be with them, not even in their company, for… Jesus how long had Howard lived like that, cut off from his true mate?  Years? Decades? 

The first three years with Pepper came back to him, she had been there as a friend and companion at the least even if she hadn’t been ready to enter a relationship with him, to bond with him.  He had had her advice and friendship during that time, hadn’t even spent a day without her.

Tony looked at Howard and forced himself to stamp down the years of resentment and hurt.  Growing up, people had treated his father like he was a god, the most important man in the room, always.  For most of his childhood he had felt the same way about his brilliant father and craved the man’s attention and approval.  But this man before him wasn’t the same.  The bravado and confidence Howard had worn like armour was curiously missing.  This was the most vulnerable he had ever seen him.  It didn’t help that right now the man looked about old enough to be his son.  In that moment, years of resentment and need for approval melted away.  He came to the realisation that he didn’t want or need that from the man in front of him anymore, he hadn’t need it in a long time.  He was finally ready to let go of old hurts, it was long past time for letting his past dictate his future.  Tony sighed and cracked his neck. 

 

“I can forgive you, for a lot of the things that happened, even understand from a certain point of view, why you were the way you were.  But I can’t forget.”  Tony paused and closed some of the distance between them, his expression open.   When he spoke next it was with an honest conviction.

“You’re wrong though, I have always needed my father.  I might have resented you and hated you at times, but you shaped me in way’s even I’m not entirely sure either of us can understand.  You were part of what made me the man I am today, and I don’t hate who I am.  Perhaps this was always how things were going to play out, maybe not.  But we get a second chance, to start over.  I think I’d like to see what we can do with that.  You will always be welcome here, Dad.”  Tony offered his hand and Howard nervously reciprocated.

The two men shook hands before Tony pulled Howard into a quick hug.

“I’m glad you’re not dead.”  Tony managed to say, albeit weakly, in his father’s ear.  The blood pounding in his veins. 

“I am too, I still have a lot to make up for, if you’ll let me.”  He replied sincerely. 

Howard let the tension melt from him as he held his son.  A second chance was more than he had hoped for.

 

###

Peggy

 

Peggy relaxed into Steve’s arm around her waist and pressed a hand to his chest, the subtle beat of his heart under her fingers grounding her completely.  It had been so long since she had felt so secure in her own skin.  Decades spent never feeling as though she were tied to anything other than her belief in pack.  Steve was like a loadstone keeping her firmly in place, his solid presence letting her finally breath again.  The years apart had nearly broken her more than once, but she had somehow stayed strong enough to continue, for his sake and her Alpha and Omega’s.  There was so much to tell them all and with the ever-pressing threat of Thanos now looming there was no time to let them fall back into the swing of things with time, instead they would have to discuss completely everything that she and the pack had discovered in the intervening years.  Her first order of business though was to see with her own eyes that her god daughters were well.  Entering the lounge, she quickly found herself the centre of attention from the very girls she had been hoping to see.

The flash of recognition on the two girls faces made tears prick at her eyes.

“Oh, my poppets, look at you.”  The girls quickly threw themselves with cries of Auntie into her arms. 

By the time lunch rolled around the atmosphere in the lounge was comfortable and happy.  Natasha and Marie caught Peggy up on everything and other than a small standoff between Logan and Peggy everything had fallen nicely into place. 

The next few days were a balm to Peggy, she felt renewed being here beside her mate and seeing the girls, getting the opportunity to get to know them felt like a miracle.  James and Darcy were still absent as she rested, but Natasha and Marie kept her updated and passed along their fathers greeting to her.  In all honesty she was nervous about seeing her Alpha, for many reasons.  She knew he would scrutinise her decisions, judge how the pack had conducted itself in his absence and she feared telling him the things which needed to be told.  Both he Darcy had been through so much, she wanted to give them what little time she could to recover before having to hand the pack back to them and thrusting them into a war neither of them was aware of or ready for.  There was also still Thanos to deal with, although Heimdall, the all-seeing, had given them the welcome news that Thanos seemed to have slowed again in his approach to earth.  He was still in pursuit of the reality gem which had eluded him so far thanks to the work of both the Collector and Lady Sif playing a dangerous game of cat and mouse with Thanos forces.  It also seemed that Thor had sent Valkyrie on a mission of her own to meet up with another group of heroes to retrieve the Power gem from Nova Prime.  With Thanos in possession of only the gauntlet itself and none of the stones, they could breathe easier, at least for a short while.  In the mean time she very much wanted the opportunity to speak to Pepper Potts.  As head of Stark Industries and as Tony’s mate she was in a position to help Peggy with a few things she needed clarification on.  Strictly speaking, she should be talking to her own Alpha about these things first but her own curiosity about Miss Potts was getting the better of her judgement.  The woman had been an enigma from the time she first came to their attention and nothing they had ever been able to glean about her had been particularly informative.  The younger Omega was happy to give her some time in her schedule today and Peggy made her way down to Miss Potts office, hoping to finally settle the matter of her curiosity once and for all. 

 

 

### 

Pepper.

 

Pepper regarded Peggy with a cool gaze, carefully taking in the set of the woman’s shoulders and the tilt of her chin.  Her manner was calm and deceptively relaxed.  Peggy had been introduced to her yesterday and had requested a short meeting today to bring Pepper, “up to speed” as she put it.  The only other female Alpha Pepper knew personally other than her own mother, was Jane.  Jane was as focused and eccentric as Tony in her manner and behaviour, it’s why the two got on so well working together and why Jane never once became territorial over his almost adoption of Darcy, stealing the young omega right out from under her.  They understood each other perfectly. 

Peggy, was entirely, another kettle of fish.  She was a soldier, a leader.  Her quiet regard and steely poise reminded Pepper strongly of James Barnes.  She had been the one to lead her pack while her primary Alpha was, for all intents and purposes missing.  She had led for more than seventy years, keeping them together, strong, and building the most impressive network of agencies, businesses and political power Pepper had ever seen.  Peggy had handed her the thick file and sat back while she made her way through it.  The entire time, Pepper was acutely aware of the woman’s eyes on her, as though she were trying to figure something out about her, what she was looking for though was a mystery to Pepper.

“From these files, you have been very busy.  Is there a reason you felt the need to bring this to me first and not my Alpha, or even your own Alpha?”  she asked her, intrigued as to what the answer would be.

Peggy smiled sharply and inclined her head a fraction.  She understood the game then, good.

“While our efforts to move the pieces on the board have been mostly successful there have been a small number of hold outs that have left us without certain key support structures, which we will need to ultimately accomplish our goal, namely Stark Industries.  You, as CEO would be our first point of contact if we want help, I thought bringing it to you first would be more proactive.  Give you a chance to see what we need and are hoping to achieve.  As for telling my own Alpha, I wanted to give him a little more time without all of this weighing both he and Darcy down.  There are also some things I don’t think we can wait to begin acting on.”  Peggy relaxed and allowed Pepper to form her next question.

“You’ve been lining up your people and those you decided to support into some very high positions, you’ve taken apart and restructured many interesting businesses and agencies.  In fact, from what I’m seeing in these files, you’re only a few steps away from being about to topple the governments of nearly every nation part of the UN.  I take it that this was part of your long-term game plan?” 

It boggles Pepper’s mind, it really does, the sheer depth and scope of this plan.  The number of years, patiently waiting, plotting, manoeuvring people into place, all without alerting the wrong people as to what was going on.  The files are staggering in their ambition, this isn’t just knocking out a few people and gaining better control of organisations, this is a full-scale attempt to overthrow all the major governing bodies on Earth.

“I suppose it could be construed in that way.  I can see you’re wondering what could drive us to such lengths.  Or perhaps you’re wondering is we’ve all went a little mad in the last seventy years.”

Pepper nodded carefully.

“It does seem a tad extreme, looking at all of this.  It looks like you’re planning to take over the world.”

Peggy’s smile took on a predatory edge that made even Pepper feel slightly un-nerved.

“Well, you’re not wrong, but it’s not entirely right either.  Don’t look at it as taking over, more that things here on Earth will be under new management.  We’re hardly planning a dictatorship, we’re just preventing the staggering abuses of power that have went unchecked for nearly two centuries.”

“By putting your own people in power.”

“No, by putting good people, with morals and integrity in power.  As things stand the people at the top right now are all linked.  Do you think it’s not all an elaborate theatre the way democracy works?  Those at the top want to stay there, they orchestrate genocide, war, famine all in the name of keeping themselves in control of the narrative.”  Peggy spoke with conviction, with certainty that her words were true.

“All we are trying to do is cripple the organisation that has been working behind the scenes to do unimaginable and terrible things, things that have made our planet vulnerable, put us all in danger.  Trust me when I say this, but Hydra was only the tip of the iceberg, what lurked underneath was invisible until we ourselves became ghosts.  Seventy years we lived with the knowledge of things to come, and as time went on, we were able to see patterns emerging, find connections where there should have been none.  Almost every major world leader for the past hundred years has been part of a Conspiracy to eradicate the pack system and stop the evolution of the human race.  They think we are abominations and the mutants even worse.  Tell me, how many miscarriages have you had?”

Pepper felt the blood drain from her face and gripped the edge of the desk tightly.  Peggy could not be insinuating what she thought she was.

“Nine.”  She answered carefully.  Peggy’s face was a picture of sorrow and sympathy.

“I am so terribly sorry.”  She finally said, her voice heavy with emotion

Pepper couldn’t think, couldn’t believe what she was hearing.  She reached blindly for her anxiety medication only for Peggy to stop her, giving a pointed look at the pills.  She dropped them as though they had burned her.  Blood was rushing in her ears and she felt the crushing weight of grief and anger burning in her mind.

“Jarvis, could you inform Mr Stark that his mate has need of him please.”

“Belay that request Jarvis.  I’m fine.” Pepper interrupted quickly.  She stood from her desk and crossed to the drink’s cabinet, her fingers closing carefully round the decanter before she stilled and took a shuddering breath, hand uncurling from the crystal and dropping to the polished walnut of the cabinets surface. Her mind was spinning, the implications of such information were harsh and deeply personal.

 

Peggy watched with interest.  It was a tricky thing, reading people.  No matter how long she watched from afar it had always been difficult to pin the red head down.  Each time the woman had been profiled the report came back just different enough to throw her whole personality into question.  This was also the woman, who had, in the four short years she had known Darcy, moulded her into a diplomatic powerhouse and nurturer of the highest calibre.  At first, she had assumed that the clever manipulation Darcy sometimes employed had been learned from Natasha, but later once she had had a chance to see the usual interaction between Darcy and daughter, she had realised that wasn’t the case.  The careful confidence, the poise and grace, the unassuming coxing and gentle nudging had all been learned from Pepper Potts.  Peggy tilted her head slightly as she observed the younger woman’s posture.  It was the shift of her shoulders, the way they relaxed even as her back seemed to straighten in icy determination that finally gave her the missing key she had been looking for.  She could feel in her bones that the conclusion she had drawn was right.

“You’re Charlotte Lewis.”  There was no question in her tone, it was a statement.  Albeit a frankly surprised one. 

Pepper turned swiftly on one heel and pinned Peggy with sharp eyes.

“Charlotte Lewis died in a car crash in 1995, she was forty-seven years old.  I am Virginia Potts.”

Peggy returned the hard stare with one of her own.  That particular look Pepper was giving her was a Darcy special, seventy odd years ago it had knocked the air out of her reliably, today it did nothing more than raise a careful brow.  Peggy didn’t back down as they both held each-others gaze unflinchingly. 

“You came back, the same as the rest of us.  How is that even possible?  And why didn’t you go back for your child?”

The accusation in Peggy’s voice made anger swell within her.  How dare she judge her, she knew nothing about what had happened.  Pepper lashed out with the painful truth.

“How could I?  I was seventeen again and to top it all off I was suddenly an Omega.  I had no idea what was happening to me.  I had to start all over again.  I had to go back to college, my mother wouldn’t let me anywhere near Darcy.  No one would have believed me.”  Pepper gasped in a breath and dialled back to anger somewhat, though her words were still bitingly sharp.  “I woke up in a coffin in a grave yard.  I had to break my way out and I don’t want to even think about how many times I died and came back trying to claw myself to the surface through six feet of wet, suffocating soil.” 

The horrified understanding on Peggy’s face allowed Pepper a moment to compose herself further.   

“I got  a new life, a new identity and I carried on.  By the time I’d heard about my mother’s death, Darcy had already been lost in the foster system.  I searched for her for years, it’s the reason I took the job at Stark industries, hoping the resources here would help me find her.  It wasn’t until Thor turned up that I suddenly had a hit on her.   Once I knew where she was, I worked on convincing Tony to bring Jane Foster here, I knew Darcy would follow her.  I hope…  Well I hoped I could get to know her, to build something, any sort of relationship with her.”

“But you could never find a way to tell her the truth.” Peggy offered a nod of sympathy to her and Pepper made her way back to her desk slowly.    

“I wanted to tell her but every time I tried, I couldn’t do it.  I didn’t want to hurt her, I didn’t want to hurt Tony either.  I never meant to get involved with Howard, but I can never regret having Darcy, she was my whole world.  I could never find the right way or time to tell either Tony or Darcy the truth.  I never expected to match with Tony, I kept him at a distance for a long time because of how complicated the situation was.”  Pepper give a wry bitter smile.   “How do you tell your mate that you had a daughter with his father?   The thoughts that constantly plagued me, the regrets?  Do you know how much I wished Tony was her father, that things had been different?  That we’d met in different circumstances?”  Pepper sat down heavily in her chair, bringing her hands up to her face to angrily wipe away the tears running down her cheeks.

“What year were you born?”  Peggy asked her carefully.

“I was born in January 1948.”  Pepper eventually told her.

“Where?”  Peggy persisted.

“Constanta, it’s a town in Romania.”

“Romania? But your name…”

“My mother changed our name when we moved to America in 1952.  Sha thought it was better to sound like we belonged.  My mother never lost her accent, but my older brothers and I did.”

“What was your family name?  You see Darcy and I, we were in Constanta for the first six months of ’48, we kept mostly to ourselves but, I seem to recall there was a family that lived not far from us with twin boys that Natasha and Marie used to play with.”

“It was Lahovary.”

“Your mother was Anastasia Lahovary? I remember her.  I remember you!”  Peggy looked with undisguised shock at Pepper, trying to reconcile the memory of a tiny baby with the woman before her.   “Darcy spent a whole afternoon holding you when we went for tea, you were only a few weeks old.  That’s why you’re still alive, why you came back.  Darcy must have somehow bonded with you, unconsciously.”

“So, being bonded to Darcy saved me?  How is any of this possible?”

“I think at this point, anything is possible.  We have literal gods meddling in the future of the universe and changing everything to suit their needs.  It seems that for most of us, we’ve all been used like pawns on a chess board, beings we cannot fathom have been playing with our lives since before the start of recorded history.”

Pepper suddenly felt a jolt of empathy for Peggy.  She sounded tired and angry, her weary resignation to it all filled Pepper with pity.  She tried to centre herself, find a place of calm within her.  Her secret was out now, there was no putting it back.

“I can’t keep this to myself anymore can I?”   she finally says.

“I think, that it’s time for many things to come to light.  But you’re right, I won’t keep this from my Alpha or from Darcy, this is something that has to be known.”

“I need to speak to Tony first.  He deserves to know, I can’t keep it from him anymore.”

 

### 

Tony

 

Tony was already on his way down to see Pepper when he felt the sudden spike of her fear and grief.  When he finally reached her office a few seconds later he stopped to assess the situation, reassured at the lack of commotion.  The conversation that followed, starting with Peggy Carters sudden revelation of Pepper’s true identity nearly floored him.  He leaned against the wall and continued to listen.  He’d always known that Pepper’s identity wasn’t her first.  He’d done a thorough back ground check on her when she first came to work for him.  Her lack of a past before the age of seventeen hadn’t bothered him.  Everyone has their secrets.  Pepper had never confided, and he had never asked.  He didn’t have to know her past to know who she was, to know she loved him and he her.

Listening to her voice crack as she poured out her regrets and fears to Peggy somehow burned away at the tiny sliver of hurt he felt at her for keeping something so important from him.  He had made so many mistakes over the years, especially with Pepper, but she had always been there for him, always forgiven him and kept him on track.  How could he do any less for her?  

Besides, she was right, Charlotte Lewis died 23 years ago.  Pepper Potts took her place, became an entirely different woman.  They already loved Darcy like their own child, nothing had changed except a little DNA.  He quietly entered the room as the conversation drew to a close. 

“Hey Pepper.”  The sudden sound startled both women.  Pepper rose to her feet, a look of desperation on her face.  She stood trembling for moment, then crossed the room on shaky legs, trying to discern his feelings as she moved closer.  Tony took her hands in his and looked her in the eyes. 

“We’ll tell her together.  Darcy isn’t going to be mad at you.  She’s one of the most forgiving people I’ve ever known.  She’s just going to be glad that she has you in her life, now. “

Pepper bit her lip hard, trying to calm her breathing.  Tony could feel her panic, regret and fear over their link.  The scent of distress was sharp in the air.  He sent a wave of calm and understanding over their bond and projected the idea of later to her.  Pepper hesitantly nodded and let him tuck her into his arms for a moment.  Tony looked over her shoulder and met Peggy’s relived expression.

“I’m not sure what purpose you had meeting with Pepper today, but I’m sure you’ve got what you came for.  In the mean time I suggest your first stop should have been your Alpha, who I know you haven’t even had the decency to visit yet.  I don’t care how old you are, how much life experience you have or even that you’ve had control of the Barnes pack for decades, protocol should not be thrown away, it exists for a reason Carter.  Go see your pack leader and get him up to speed.”

Peggy stood her ground but flushed at the rebuke.  She’d spent so long making decisions for everyone that she had let the proper hierarchy fall to the wayside in her eagerness to get a better read on Ms Potts.  That had backfired. 

“You’re right, I apologise.  May I head up now?”

“Jarvis will take you to medical, just hop on the elevator.”  He told her, a soothing hand still gently stroking down Pepper’s back.

 

 

###

 

 

Bucky sat loosely in the chair by the windows as the sun started to go down.  The silence was broken only by Darcy’s soft breaths.  She lay curled on her side, one arm flung out across the empty space beside her, the other tucked under her pillow.  He could watch her forever, he would never grow tired of looking at her.  She was still beautiful, still full of fire and passion, but she was changed, different.  The girl he had gotten to know from a distance over the last year was gone. 

He knows now, that that Darcy, the confidant, carefree, mouthy broad with a penchant for fuzzy sweaters and brightly coloured scarves had ceased to exist the minute she had been swept back in time. 

He’s been turning it over in head for months really.  He remembers the first time he met her in that street in New York.  He remembers a girl, who though strong and independent was still lost.  She had tried to watch her words, curb her language, act like a lady.  Not that she wasn’t one, his Darcy was always a lady, but she was also a product of the era she was born in. 

He hadn’t really appreciated before, just how much of herself she had held back, not hidden, but stifled.  It had been a different time, there were expectations she had sought to live up to.  She’d done it partly to survive, but also because there would have been too many questions otherwise.  Too many clues that might have given her away. 

He mourns the young woman he’d watched fill the tower with joy.  He grieves for the girl who never had worry about what she wore or said, who never had to put up with the disrespect and dismissiveness of society. 

Is it wrong for him to miss that Darcy? 

He’d felt as though he’d gotten to know her over the last ten months, just from watching her from afar.  He’s depressingly aware that although he will always love Darcy, not matter what form she takes, that he fell in love with her again, he fell in love with the young woman who had the world at her feet in the 21st century. 

She had saved him, saved his reputation in this time and she had done so without knowing what they were to each other.   Part of him feels guilty for that, for falling for the innocent Darcy Lewis, untouched by the burden she had bourn from the first time he met her in 1940.  It almost feels like a betrayal of the woman she became. 

She would never see it that way, he knows, but still.  Part of him wonders if that Darcy will ever resurface.  She changed greatly during the war, the toll it took on her had been obvious at the time. Knowing now, that she had been living with the weight of he and Steve’s fates hanging over her that whole time, left him feeling more guilt. 

Everything that had happened after was worse, she had been pregnant and then raising their daughters on her own.  Constantly looking over her shoulder and on the run.  She must have wondered for so long if she would ever go home, see him again. 

He knows that this Darcy, who lies in bed across from him, is different from the one he left before falling from the train.  He wants to know her, to find out who she’s become, he wants them to find their way back to each other emotionally and he’s not afraid to admit that it might be little more difficult than either of them will want to believe. 

He wonders, if he had simply walked away from the coffee shop that morning last week, let her deal with the drama herself if she would ever have even gone back in time, would she have been better off if he had?  It’s a pointless question. 

It had been a tortuous ten months, keeping his distance from her, not knowing if he should approach her or not.  In that moment as he watched her through the window of the shop, he’d been as unable to stop what happened next as he had the day he fell from the train.  He was always going to fall for her, not matter the time, or the place or who they would become.  There would only ever be her.

 

November 17th2018 Lobby of Stark Tower. (The Day Darcy Disappeared)

 

Bucky wakes at the crack of dawn and stumbles down the hall to the kitchen.  Natalia’s been gone for three days on a mission and it seems that he has taken the woman for granted.  There is not a coffee bean to be had in the whole apartment. 

He grumbles inaudibly and heads to the shower, hoping to shake off the lingering sleep in his system.  The past week he has felt unbearably paranoid, the feeling has disrupted his normal sleep pattern, if you could call it that.  What little sleep he manages to get between nightmares has reduced to almost zero.  When the hot spray does little to shake him awake, he turns the dial and lets the freezing cold water soak him till he shivers.  It certainly wakes him up, but it also induces the creeping horror of old memories.  A small price to pay for not walking into door frames on they way to the gym though.

He forgoes his usual trip past the common floor kitchen, he’s not in the mood to lay eyes on the woman he can’t have right now, he feels unstable enough as it is. 

The need to pull her into his arms and mark is growing stronger by the day.  He’d nearly broken his own rule last week and joined her in the den.  She’d been curled up on the couch watching re runs of Murder She Wrote while tapping away on her phone.  Her profile had been lit by the afternoon sunlight, the halo of flyaway curls hovering around her head were a sin themselves.  God, he remembered what it felt like to run his fingers through her hair, to run over each silken strand and then let the ends curl round his fingers.  The way she would press closer and sigh into his chest as he played with her hair.  The little breathy sounds of satisfaction that would be coaxed out of her from such a simple action had amused him to no end.  The sounds she made were filthy, especially considering he knew it wasn’t a turn on for her, she was like a cat enjoying being stroked and those orgasmic little moans nothing more than pure hedonistic satisfaction. 

He shook his head and curled his fists, trying to dispel the image from his mind.  The gym was a sanctuary of silence this morning, he’s thankful for it, the thought of talking to anyone right now filled him with rage.  When he was finally done, he showered and went back to the apartment.  The empty coffee maker greeted him smugly from the countertop.  Changing into dark jeans and a thick warm jumper, he ran some mouse through his hair and attempted to make it look at least somewhat presentable. 

Natalia had bugged him for months to cut it, he’d finally caved when she appealed to his vanity.  He’d allowed her to cut it, not trusting anyone else with a blade behind him other than Darcy.  It wasn’t quite as short as he used to keep it back in Brooklyn, but it was easy to maintain and a little product applied after a shower and quick finger comb had it styled to acceptable modern standards.  Natalia’s laugh when she had finished styling it had taken him aback, but she hadn’t deigned to share her mirth and he’d let it go. 

The lobby was moderately busy this morning.  He greeted the security personnel at the desk, checked over the logs and turned to head out to get coffee beans for the machine. 

“Sergeant Barnes” a voice called out from across the lobby.  Pepper Pott’s stiletto heels clicked cheerfully off the marble parquet as she made a bee line for the front desk.

“Ma’am.”  Bucky greeted her respectfully. 

He’d only met Pepper a few times now, it was sometimes difficult to be around the woman.  So many of her mannerisms and the way she held herself were echoes of Darcy.  Even the way she carefully worded things with certain people could bring up the memory of Darcy dealing with particularly difficult people in the same clever diplomatic way.  In fact it was exactly this that warned him that whatever she was about to try and get him to do was something he probably wasn’t going to like.  The tone of her greeting was a just a touch too cheerful, a hair too predatory and the underlying scent of satisfaction stunk of expected triumph. 

“How are you this morning Sergeant?”

“I’m well, just thought I’d come down to get some coffee.”

“It’s certainly the morning for it, I only wish I had time to grab a cup myself, but I have a meeting I’m going to be late for if I don’t hurry.  You know, now might be the time to get that coffee, before the line grows any longer.”  She gestures to the lobby coffee shop with her channel purse.

He looks across to the shop about to agree when he spots the unmistakable curly head of Darcy slipping into the line. 

“I think I’d rather head out, buy some beans for the machine in the apartment.”  He tries as an excuse.

Pepper raises one perfectly plucked brow and smiles knowingly.

“You know, you’re never going to get to know her properly unless you talk to her.”

“Stark told you.”  Bucky manages shortly, thinking back to the man’s unexpected talk with him a month ago.  He’d brought up Bucky’s stalking of Darcy then. 

“Tony didn’t tell me, I told him.  Darcy is very important to me Sergeant, I love her as my daughter.  You’ve avoided her since moving into the tower, I don’t pretend to know why, since it’s clear to anyone really looking that you’re besotted with her.”  his attempt to refute that failed as she held a hand up to forestall his response.

“Talk to her.  She already likes you, it’ll be an easy sell. Go rescue her, I can see a couple of idiots trying to circle her from here.”  Peppers tone was all exasperated amusement.

Bucky’s head shot round to see what she meant.  Through the glass partition wall, he saw what she was talking about.  A low subharmonic growl rumbled from his chest.

“She can handle herself.”  He tried to convince himself.  Pepper smiled.

“Sure she can, but I don’t feel like dealing with HR this week when one or more of those morons end up tasered in the balls.”  The crude word sounds wrong falling from the woman’s lips, but it makes Bucky’s own twitch in amusement. 

“Invite her to dinner Mr Barnes, and dancing, she just bought a new dress she’d probably like to try out.  I’ll have Jarvis make reservations for you at Delmonico’s for 7.30.  Now go get your girl Sergeant, that’s an order.”  She tells him firmly. 

He can see where Darcy learned not to take no for an answer.  The woman just decided that he would do as she wanted and managed him all the way into position without him realising till it was too late. 

“People don’t often say no to you do they Ms Potts.”

Pepper offered nothing more than bland smile and bid him good day.

He turned and walked closer to the coffee shop, staring through the glass till he found her.

He watches as she pulls her shoulders in and glares at the man who passes too close inside her space.  He can see her fingers curl around the taser in her pocket as he really considers the red heads words.

 Maybe it’s time to just step up and see what happens.  He shouldn’t waste any of the time he may have left with her, running from her instead of too her. 

A second man has followed in the wake of the first and Bucky watches as she seems to shrink in on herself again.  She’s nothing like this upstairs.  On the pack floors she’s overly confident and loud, down here, out of her territory she’s less certain.  The need to step in and help her grows the longer he watches. 

When she looks up and sees him their eyes lock and the air leaves his body.  It’s like seeing her for the first time all over again, like an ocean wave pulling him under.  He sees the mirror of his response in her face and his eyes widen as he hears the high-pitched whine while his eyes follow the pretty curve of her neck as she tilts it towards him.  In the back of his mind he thinks she’ll probably be the end of him.  The woman is a trouble magnet.  She looks away and immediately realises what she’s done.  He sees the embarrassment and discomfort on her face and gives in.  She needs him. 

Bucky makes his way to her quickly sending waves of scent and a rumble of warning for anyone in his way.  It’s takes him seven seconds to reach her.  It takes her five to decide to duck under his offered arm. 

From there it’s a blur of flirting and talking and he finds a rhythm to it both new and familiar.  He finds her utterly charming.  Her shyness adorable.  He grins more in the fifteen minutes he spends with her than he has in the last eight decades. 

Standing in the elevator, after leaving her with the promise of a date, is the most grounded he’s felt in months.  The sudden clicking of her kitten heels on the tiles has him holding the door as she rushes back towards him.

She does it again, takes him completely by surprise.  Asks for his mark wordlessly in scent and action. 

This time he doesn’t have it in him to argue with her or try and talk her out of it.  He has her in his arms, against his body and presses his nose into her hair to inhale the intoxicating scent of his mate. 

He just makes one request of her, her complete and quick agreement nearly floors him.  Caught in a daze, words are formally exchanged between them and he finds himself marking her with a courting bond.  It’s like the final pieces of a puzzle falling into place for him.  This is how their story started.  Half remembered words from their first meeting in 1940 tumble through his mind. 

_“One day, you’ll understand what’s going on here, but I can’t tell you the details.  I think I get it now though, why you marked me the way you did, you already knew what was going to happen, this was your way of protecting me now, so I’m trusting the Bucky I met this morning to know what he was doing when he swore he would shelter and protect me, I know he wouldn’t go back on his word and you can see your mark on me, the promise is already made. Are you going to break it?”_

 

Jesus Christ it was going to be today, how did he walk away from this and not say anything?  How could he let her go, knowing that she was about to be swept back in time?  It wasn’t long enough, there were only hours left and he couldn’t hang around and disrupt her day, couldn’t do anything that might change it. 

They stand in the lift, cheek to cheek while he closes his eyes and buries his nose in her hair as she purrs.  He doesn’t want to let her go.  He wants to hold her here forever, maybe run off somewhere with her.  But if he does that, he disrupts time and they don’t understand enough to figure out how badly things would go if they did.  He has to stick to the plan. 

Finally, they draw apart a little and he rests their foreheads together, a gesture of comfort and trust they had developed long ago.  Wordlessly he tries to tell her that he loves her, that he’s sorry he has to let her go now, that he’ll wait for her, that he will find her. 

She smiles brightly up at him, high on the first steps of a bond she won’t get to complete in this time.  For a moment he envy’s his younger self, who gets to do this part all over again.  His younger self didn’t know how lucky he had it, he really didn’t.  It’s that year of marriage, that happiness, that got him through the next eighty.  He lets her go reluctantly as Doctor Foster calls for her.  Somehow, he holds it together well enough to exchange a few more words.  As the doors close, he can’t leave her with nothing. Instead he calls out the only clue or warning he can give her.

“Darcy, you are a complete surprise in every time.” 

He means it, she’ll never stop surprising him, if they live to be a thousand, he knows she’ll still have him half off balance at every turn with her shenanigans.  He watches as the doors close, burning the sight of her smiling face, full of surprise and excitement into his mind while he prays to god that this won’t be the last time that they see each other.   

 

 

 

Present Time

He’s startled out of his thoughts when Darcy beings to mumble in her sleep.  He reaches across their bond and sooths her back under, whatever dreams were upsetting her seem to smooth out at the touch of his mind to hers. 

Natalia and Marie had left hours ago but Darcy was still sleeping, gaining her strength back, she needed more rest to heal properly.  The feel of Darcy through the bond, it was the most magical feeling in the world. 

He hadn’t realised properly just how much he had missed it when it had lain dormant and quiet.  She thrummed with life, the feel of her mind like a warm sunny day keeping the cold dark at bay.  He wasn’t sure what she had done, exactly, but when she had opened herself to the pack, to both packs, he had suddenly become aware of everyone he and she were linked to.  He’d been sitting here checking up on each and every one of them, pinpointing where they were, how they were.  He was almost overcome with emotion, knowing that his pack were safe and well in this time even if they weren’t here physically it was like a great weight lifted off his chest. 

Peggy was in the tower somewhere, she and Steve radiating contented satisfaction.  He could feel Natalia and Marie, they weren’t far, probably in Bruce and Natalia’s apartment with their mates.  An hour later he felt Peggy tug gently on the bond, asking for attention.  Inwardly he focused on her and then quietly left the room, she was outside waiting for him.

 

Bucky regarded her with affection in his eyes when he saw her.  She had been there, with Darcy through everything, she had protected and looked after her and his daughters, he could never adequately thank her for that.  Peggy closed the distance between them and smiled nervously as she gave a tiny fraction of a tilt of her head to bare her neck in deference to him.

“My Alpha.”  She murmured.

Bucky grasped her elbows and ducked to gently rub cheeks with her, the bubble of warmth and relief flooded through their bond.

“My second.”  He intoned clearly.  He felt her stiffen and draw back, confusion clear in her posture.

“I….   what?” 

Bucky chuckled and tucked a lock of hair behind her ear.

“Have you led the pack in my absence?”

“Yes Alpha.”

“Have you protected my family as your own?”

“Yes Alpha.”

“Have you made the necessary decision to keep them safe, even against your moral reasoning, doing what was needed even when it meant making choices which compromised your character?”

“Yes, Alpha.”

“Then you are and have been my second for all these decades, do you think I would strip you of that now?  Ignore the sacrifices you’ve made for us?  You could have chosen to return with us from 1948, but instead you stayed behind to look after our pack.”

“But Steve…”

“Steve and I know where we stand with each other.  We’re still friends, but, I think it’ll take a bit more time before I trust him so completely again.  You’re more suited to the role, were already moving into it before I fell from that train.  You certainly didn’t have a problem taking the lead over Steve then when the situation required it.  I’m just acknowledging it formally now.  Steve will be relived, trust me.”

Peggy lifted her chin and nodded confidently, pride and pleasure spilling out in her scent.  She grinned at him and stepped back. 

“How is she?”  she asked him, not bothering to conceal her concerned look towards the door to the room Darcy was in.

“Healed, but tired.  She needs her rest.  So, what brings you here now?  You’ve been in the tower for  a few days, I expected you sooner.” 

She hesitated a moment than crossed her arms. 

“I was putting off the inevitable I suppose, and perhaps I was trying to be a little too clever.  There are some things I need to tell you.  I think you’ll probably want to sit down for most of it.  Could we go somewhere?”

Bucky could tell she was worried about her news, in all honesty he hadn’t expected anything less.  It seemed there was always something nipping at their heels, trying to take a chunk out of them.  Thinking it might change now that if finally felt like life was falling into place for them had been foolish.

“Jarvis, can Pepper or Tony come lay with Darcy for a while, I don’t want to leave her alone.”

“Of course, Sergeant Barnes.  Sir and Ms Potts will be up momentarily.  May I direct you to the small lounge at the end of the hall if you are in need of a private place to talk?” The AI spoke smoothly from the walls.

“Thank you, Jarvis, that would be helpful.”

“No thanks needed Sergeant.  It’s my pleasure.”

The ding of the elevator signalled Pepper and Tony’s arrival and the two Alpha’s nodded agreeably before parting. 

“Do I want to know why Pepper’s been crying and Tony looks about ready to murder something?”  he asked Peggy as they entered the lounge.

“It’s part of a rather long story.”  She said after a beat. 

The lounge was small but comfortable.  The small bar in the corner was well stocked and Bucky could tell this was going to be a long talk.  He grabbed the decanter and two glasses and sat on the dark leather sofa.

“Come on Peggy, sit and let’s get this started.”

Peggy sat and accepted the generous glass of bourbon, taking a fortifying sip before setting it on the low table between them.

“It’s hard to know where to start.  I suppose the best place is with The Conspiracy.  After the war we came into possession of some rather dangerous information, it all started with a two files Colonel Philips gave me, three days after VE day.   At first, we put it on hold, there were other more pressing concerns, especially with Darcy and the babies, but after you returned her to the present, we investigated the claims made more thoroughly.  I visited the man who had passed the file to Philips, what he told me, showed me, was horrifying.  We knew once we started digging, that to keep our pack safe, the people we count as family safe, there would have to be change on a large scale.  Over the years this belief has only grown stronger.  The evidence we have managed to gather paints a rather morbid picture.   It shows a global movement against not just large packs and potential pack royals but also against those who are superhuman or mutant.  Assassination’s, convenient accidents, deliberate actions to sterilise Omega’s that were potential queens.  The termination of pregnancy’s through poison or trauma.  The list is endless and sickening.  Kidnap, murder, forced experimentation, torture or both adults and children.  The people who have been running this are at the top of every government, slowly chipping away at the rights of packs and people both.  There has been a slow genocide of Alpha’s and Omega’s for at least the last hundred years.  They want to change what makes us human, they want to stop evolution.  In 1945 twenty percent of the male population was designated Alpha, ten percent of females were Omega.  Today that number has dropped, they’ve been smart, kept it hidden.  It currently stands at twelve and seven percent respectively.  The first concrete evidence we gathered ourselves had to do with suppressants…”

Bucky listened with growing horror to Peggy as she explained the events, at least the key events, that had shaped the last seventy years.  She was concise in her telling and stopped to clarify points when needed. 

She explained about The Conspiracy, in detail.  They had known even back in ’43 that there was some sort of underhanded agency at work, trying to get any successful packs on the front line and killed.  Since he’d come back to himself it hadn’t seemed like something that he should be worrying about.  Now he felt like kicking himself for missing the opportunity to at least dig up the information about the end of the war. 

Hearing Peggy’s account of just how far they had been willing to go to achieve their goals sickened him.  How people could be so blinded by hatred was staggering, that they might very well have succeeded before now in their plans if not for his pack’s actions left a burning rage in his belly. 

They were the root of places like the Red Room, of organisations like Hydra, wanting to purify the human race but perfectly happy to use those with abilities for their own gain.  He had sworn before that he would hunt down anyone that had had a hand in torturing his daughters, now he finally had a direction to point himself in.  Thanks to Peggy he had names, faces, places. 

She explained the true reach that the pack now had, the true power that was now his to wield as he saw fit.  That had taken him aback, brought him up short.  The scale of the change that he could order done would turn the world upside down, even if it was almost bloodless in execution.  Could he really do it?  He knew he could, wipe out this organisation and any power it might have, eradicate the need for his family to look over their shoulders constantly.  She even had a ten-year plan to make massive policy changes in government to re integrate pack territory and law into the legislature.  How would the world look fifty years from now if all these changes were implemented? 

“If I gave the go ahead, how long would it take?”  Peggy paused at his sudden question as he gazed stonily over the file in his hands.

“Our most conservative projections are that the ruling governments of 106 countries would quietly change hands over the course of a three months.  In some cases, it’s a simple step down from office with our approved person stepping in.  In other’s a change in actual government.  The American election is in three days, we think we’ve already done enough to ensure Bartlett is elected, but if needs be, we can have the other candidate arrested forthwith.  The only things standing between him and justice are the heads of three departments in the FBI, the New York DA’s office and a chief justice, I could have them all tucked away and or circumvented in order to get the warrant and the evidence properly processed and charges brought.  The only thing we don’t control is the media.  We deemed it far too risky to get into bed with journalists and none of our current affiliates has any influence there due to the covert nature of their organisations.  Social media on the other hand…  well it’s Darcy that excels in that area, she has all the necessary connections to get the news out, after that the print media should follow along like ducklings, just as they have any other time, she has went on a social justice crusade.”

Bucky nodded and wondered if Darcy would be at all surprised at what was transpiring. 

“Do you have a list of potential allies, packs with influence we should give a heads up to?  We can’t just throw the current system under the bus without warning the most prominent packs of what’s going on, it would piss them off.  We don’t need a war with our own kind.”

“We do, we have links within every Pack Royal and potential pack royal as well as the family structured packs that run organised crime and even governments behind the scenes.”

“Then we don’t want to step on the toes of the people who could potentially step into the power vacuum when we clean house.  We’re going to have to call a summit of Alpha’s.  And we’re going to have to do it without anyone finding out about it, can we cover transport and location?”

“Yes, we can, we have enough people to keep it pack only if that is your order.  We’ll have to do it by country, or at least region though.  There are a great many more than pack’s and Pack Royals now than you would think.  We’ve become adept at hiding it.”

“Just how big has our pack become Peggy, you didn’t say earlier.”

“Well, assuming all pack family members feel the need to bend the knee as it were, around a hundred and twenty adult members, another sixty or so children and then any spouses or close partners who have been brought in by association.  Core pack is the same as it ever was, only those of us linked to both you and Darcy.  We have also succeeded in keeping ties with the packs we allied with during the war, their decedents have, for the most part, kept the faith with us, will still follow us if we ask.  That is easily by this point another thousand people we can rely on for help.  Then there is the organisation we’ve ran.  We’ve made new allies, strong ones. We have a briefing ready whenever you want to meet.”

“Ward told me most of his cousins have went into the family business.”

“Yes, well, it seems that all the children feel the need to prove themselves useful to the family.  It’s only natural.  Those without aptitude for danger are given less strenuous tasks or simply keep an ear to the ground as it were.  The Falsworth’s, in particular, seem to have flare for the espionage and politics.”

“I think the first Alpha we’ll be talking to will be Tony, tomorrow if possible, he should know all this too.”

“He’s not going to take it well.”

“Of course, he’s not going to take it well, his mate has been poisoned repeatedly and forced to miscarry their children.  He’ll be fucking furious and so he should be.  But he’s not stupid.  It’ll take him ten minutes to go from raging hothead to stone cold sociopath.  Once he’s in that headspace we can reason with him, hell, he’ll see any potential holes in your plans and fix them too.  We just need to have him grounded when we tell him.  Between Pepper and Darcy, he’ll be fine.  It was stupid to try and go behind his back with this earlier.  I don’t expect you’ll ever make a mistake like that again.”

Peggy nodded and curbed the need to whine in acquiesce, the resonance in his voice setting the order in stone.  She hesitates for only a second before telling him the most recent pieces of information they have on Tony and Pepper’s situation.  The incredulity on his face and the abrupt way he stands and starts to pace thankfully doesn’t make her flinch, but it’s a close thing. 

She’s not sure what she had been expecting to find when seeing him again.  His presence which before had always been solid and impenetrable had changed in the intervening years.  The Alpha in him sat under the surface, his presence was intimidating, and she felt even more now that desire to please him which in the past had been much weaker.  Now it commanded her loyalty and attention, the last thing she wanted was for her Alpha to be disappointed in her. 

When she finally left his presence, she rolled her shoulders, letting the muscles relax.  She looked down the corridor towards Darcy’s room and decided that she would wait a little longer to see her.  James would want to fill her in, however briefly, himself before she saw her.  In the mean time she felt the need to find Steve and warn him to be on his best behaviour and to find out what he’d done exactly that had moved her own rank up in the packs original structure. 

 

 

###

 

Darcy drifted slowly awake, the feeling of two warm bodies pressed against her, shielding her.  The scents of Pepper and Tony were unmistakable.  She snuggled closer to Pepper, her head tucked firmly beneath the older woman’s chin.  The twin scents of Tony and Pepper surrounded her, love, comfort, protection all bled through with Pepper’s deep jasmine base scent and Tony’s tangerine.  It had been such a long-time sine she had seen them, been held by them.  Darcy had missed this so much.  She had bonded so strongly with both Pepper and Tony in the first few months after meeting them that it had felt as though she had known them for years.  The place they took in her life had grounded her completely and given her the stability she hadn’t realised she’d needed.  They were the parents she had wanted and still needed.  It seemed that although she had truly grown into her own in the last eight years, part of her would always be a child looking for reassurance while in their presence.

“Hey kid, how you feeling?”  Tony asked her softly.  His mental presence nudged at her gently and sent tiny tendrils of love and safety and reassurance down their reawakened bond.

“Better, a lot better.  When did you two get here?”

Pepper propped herself up on one elbow and ran a soft hand through her hair before stroking her cheek gently.

“It’s been about an hour.  Peggy Carter came to speak to Sergeant Barnes, he asked us to keep you company.  The girls are down stairs organising dinner for the troops and the rest of our family are all here in the tower, safe.”  Pepper answered her with a smile.

Darcy felt tears well in her eyes as she looked at the relieved faces of Tony and Pepper.

“I’ve missed you guys so much.  You have no idea how good it is to see you again.”

“We missed you too baby-girl.  We all have a lot to catch up on, even you.  Things have happened in the last four days since you disappeared.  Revelations in fact.  There are some things we need to tell you.  Things that shouldn’t wait.”  Tony’s voice was worried.

“Okay?”  Darcy intoned, a smattering of confusion and unease creeping up her spine.

“It’s nothing bad, I promise.  Just something that…”  Tony paused and looked at Pepper who was biting her bottom lip guiltily.  Darcy turned to look at Pepper.  She was pale and looking more closely, the woman had been crying recently.  A hundred horrible possibilities ran through Darcy’s mind, was it Jane?  Or Happy?  Maybe something had happened to Peter?  But Tony would be the one to tell her if that were the case.  Okay, maybe it wasn’t someone hurt or in trouble, maybe something about the company? 

“You know I love you Darcy, right?”  Darcy nodded uncertainly, not sure where this could possibly be going.

“I promise I was going to tell you, in fact there are so many times I nearly did but…”  Pepper took a breath and then sat up properly.  Darcy followed, concern flowing from her.  Pepper’s distress and worry were bleeding through her mental walls.  Darcy had never seen her so ruffled and unsure.  She looked to Tony wondering why he was keeping his mouth shut, it was so unlike him.  He was always the first to comfort Pepper, to try and fix whatever had went wrong or upset her, granted he was usually the one who had caused a problem in the first place but, this was just unsettling, majorly unsettling.  What on earth was going on?  Darcy reached out to try and catch Peppers hands in her own, offer her some grounding, but she pulled away, her head shaking a denial.  Unbidden a burst of hurt bit into Darcy’s heart at the rejection.  Undaunted she firmed her chin and started talking, Darcy had always been good with words.

“Hey, whatever it is, I’m not going to be mad or upset, of course I know you love me, just like I love you too.  I needed you, missed you every day I was gone.  There were so many things I found myself wanting to tell you, to ask you.  You have no idea how much I just wanted to come home, how much I needed your advice.”  Pepper smiled wetly and offered her hands to Darcy, she latched on in relief and held tight.  “you must know how much you mean to me, you took me in, you taught me so much and you made me feel wanted and included.  You have been everything a mother is meant to be, for the first time in my life that I could remember I felt like I had a mom.  It’s something I always needed but never had, until you.  There is nothing you can tell me that will change how I feel about you.”  Darcy tried to reassure her, at the mention of the word mother, Pepper had crumbled a little and tears suddenly began to stream down her face.

“Darcy, you have no idea how much that means to me, but it makes this – what I have to tell you so much harder.”  Darcy held firmly to Peppers hands. 

Tentatively she brushed against their pack bond and then confused, reached for it again, examining then link carefully.  Her power allowed her a much better understanding of such things now.  Before she had never even known how to reach out and understand how bonds worked.  After eight years though, she had honed it to perfection.  It was second nature to do it.  Oh, Darcy thought with awe as she recognised what it represented.  But how?  Wonder and surprise, a tinge of resigned understanding and grief welled up at the implication.  But how was it possible?  She schooled her expression and waited while Pepper seemed to gather herself before speaking again.

“It’s a really long and complicated story.  I should have told you when we met… but I was scared and I was afraid you might leave and I…”  she took another breath and lifted her chin, determined to meet Darcy’s eyes when she told her. 

“The truth is, I wasn’t always Pepper Potts.  I had a life before I took up this identity, I had another name and I had a little girl.  She was my everything, I was 44 when I found out I was pregnant.  I’m not proud of what I did, having an affair with a married man was a mistake, a huge one, but it gave me my baby, that is something I can never regret.   I had been alone by choice most of my life.  I didn’t always feel whole, or complete, it drove me to work constantly, but when I found out I was pregnant I was so excited, so happy.  I quit working and decided to stay at home.  I had my mother to help me, she was so happy that there was going to be a baby.  I never thought I’d have a family, I had meningitis as a child, we know now of course that it can prevent presentation in healthy designate children, but when I was growing up we didn’t.  The thinking then of course was that if a child of two designates didn’t present then they were barren or infertile.  You can imagine my shock, finding myself about to have a baby.  I only had a few years with her before I was killed.  You can imagine I think, the horror I felt when I woke up, young and whole…”  she trailed off for a moment but Darcy could guess what came next. 

“in your coffin…  “  She finished the sentence for her in a whisper, gulping in a breath before her voice broke.

Pepper bit her lip hard and gave a sharp nod.  Darcy’s heart was pounding in her chest, she felt breathless with mounting hurt and grief.  

“I…  I got out eventually.”  Her voice shook with remembered trauma.  Darcy blinked back tears and held her mother’s hands tighter.

“There was…… It was a terrifying experience, eventually I made my way home, that’s when I found out that I had de-aged.  My mother thought I was a ghost at first and then an evil spirit.  She was so very protective of you Darcy.  Anyway, I couldn’t go back, I had no identity, no money, no one to help me.  I kept trying to get her to listen but she was understandably distressed.  I was maybe about sixteen or seventeen physically.  I couldn’t support myself let alone a child, I thought you’d be safe with her, I thought, if I could just get myself sorted out, get an identity, a job, I could come back and…  But that didn’t happen.  I found a part time job at a dinner and rented a room from some students.  I told them I was running from a bad situation.  One of the students was working for the coroner’s office part time, he felt bad for me, he used his position there to get me a new identity.  That’s when I became Virginia Potts.”  They were both gripping hands tightly at this point nails biting into skin numbly.  “That’s when Charlotte Lewis really died, on a cold day in January in 1996.  I enrolled in school and tried to focus on studying.  When I went back to the house, you were both gone.  It took me a few years to track you down, when I finally did, your Nana was dead and you’d been scooped up by the foster system.  I tried so hard to find you, I never stopped looking I swear.  I didn’t find you again until Thor arrived. I had no idea how to explain any of it…  I am so sorry.”

Darcy processed the words and then tried to make sense of them.  She felt as though there was nothing left anymore that could surprise her, she really had lived a crazy life, but this she thinks as she turns to Tony, takes the biscuit, it’s actually nuttier than the time travelling shenanigans and naming her daughter after her friend who turned out to be her daughter.  Tony nods his head seriously at her unasked question.   Huh.  Who knew? 

“Pepper suggested inviting Foster here as soon as we heard about it, I didn’t know about any of this till today either.  But Darcy, she would never have left you alone like that if there had been any other way.  As soon as she knew where you were she did everything she could to bring you back together, to help you…”

Darcy presses her lips tightly together and nods, she knows what Tony is trying to say.  Of course she doesn’t blame Pepper, how could she?  This was her fault.   Her fault for making deals with higher beings, this… this whole thing stunk of higher intervention, she thought angrily.  

She more than anyone else understands intimately just how their lives have all been manipulated by the Norns, knows that this will just be another play on the board, one that was meant to mould her into the perfect keeper, into the perfect weapon of fate.  Of course, she wouldn’t be allowed to grow up in a safe loving home, she had lessons to learn that that type of environment would never have allowed for.  Tears spill down her cheeks, splashing onto their joined hands.

She realises that poor Pepper, her mother, is waiting, tearing herself apart with blame, while Darcy ponders the state of the universe.  Does it really matter?  At the end of the day, Pepper had already been treating her like a daughter for nearly five years and she had been quick to fall into the role of daughter happily.  It didn’t change anything, not really.  Her mother isn’t the only one in this family to keep secrets.  They’ve all done what they thought was best for those they loved. 

Later, much later, she would allow herself to grieve properly to be angry, to feel a little hurt or lost, feel regret, but it wouldn’t change the end result.  This was their story, a tale of lost opportunities and the fickleness of fate.  A story of mothers and the daughters they didn’t get the chance to raise. 

She only hopes the same curse won’t befall her own girls, than she cringes back from the thought, because of course, she’s just poked Murphy with a large stick.  She reaches out to her bond with Marie first, carefully shielding her daughter from the intrusion, because this can’t wait, this horrid feeling of _knowing_ , it’s itching in her mind.  She follows the bonds the Marie carries, feeling carefully for dormant or severed soul bonds, relief sweeps through her, Marie holds no bonds with a living child. 

Darcy’s mind retreats and she repeats the process with Natasha, following her youngest daughters’ tethers and then she stops, hovering in the metaphysical, her anger and rage growing as she finds it.  A tiny link that had formed at the moment of creation, but never had the chance to grow strong enough for Natasha to feel it.  She can guess what they did, IVF most probably.  She’s too tired to follow that link right now, to puzzle it out, it’s a problem for another day, instead Darcy reaches out to her mother and hugs her. 

Pepper’s arms come about her with a sob and Darcy holds back her own tears as she clutches her.  It didn’t take more than a second before Tony was holding them both.  Darcy smiles into Pepper neck and snorts.

“I guess I really can call Tony Dad now, Mom.”

Pepper hiccupped and coughed as she began to laugh, and Tony groaned theatrically. 

“I think this will confuse the hell out of Howard.”  Again, Darcy feels the weight of surprise crash into her.  Howard.  Her father.

“He’s here?  Alive?”  she asks, squinting up at him.  Tony sighs and nods.

“He turned up this morning.  I left him down in the lounge, think he’s catching up with Steve.”  She’d have to be both deaf and blind and senseless not to feel the flicker of jealousy and possessiveness that flares however briefly from him.  It seems reassuring her mother isn’t the only task before her.

“Tony, I love Howard like a big brother, seriously.  He can be a pain in the ass, but he’s our pain in the ass.  He helped me, he was there when I needed him, but it will never change the fact that every time he tried to comfort me, it was you I wanted there to make everything better.  I feel like the world just got everything all switched around and upside down with us, you know?  He doesn’t hold that place in my life.  You are my big brother, but you never treated me like a little sister once we knew what we were to each other, you just continued to treat me the same way you did at the start, like I was your kid.  You have no idea how much I needed and wanted that, how much I still need that.  I wish you were my dad, you know that?  I wish I was yours, it would make everything so much simpler.  Him being here, alive, it’s wonderful, but it doesn’t change the roles we gave each other a long time ago.  I will always love you like a father Tony and if you really want me to, I’ll call you dad.”  She grins at his stupefied expression through wet lashes and then he moves, she’s wrapped in him arms, his scent enveloping her as he presses kisses into her hair.

“You don’t get to take that back short-stack.  I’m keeping you.”  He whispers forcefully.

“Good, cause I have about a million Dad jokes that just wouldn’t work with him and it would be a crying shame to waste them.” 

Darcy feels the rumbling mirth in his chest as he laughs.  This feels right, it feels like something has slotted into place, become complete.  Her mom reaches for them and the three of them are wrapped around each other, a family.  She had her family back, now she just had work on setting everything else to rights. 

 

 ###

 

A few hours later Darcy is allowed to go back to her apartment.  She tells Jarvis to let Bucky know where she’s gone.  Right now though, she needs some quiet and a shower.

Darcy pads from the bathroom feeling clean and refreshed.  She towel dries her hair absently as she walks the room.  Coming back to her apartment was like stepping into the past.  The alien familiarity jarring in its normality.  For her it had been eight years since she stepped foot inside the space.  Everything was where she had left it.  Her fluffy cardigan thrown over the back of the couch.  The book she had been reading pressed, pages down, on the coffee table.  The DVR flashes, a reminder of the shows she had set to record but, in all honesty, couldn’t recall off the top of her head what they were.  Peter’s jumper is hanging on the hook by the door where he must have forgotten it the morning she disappeared.  Knickknacks and remnants of another life littered the surfaces of the room. 

On the other side of the couch she notices something out of place, out of time.  She can’t believe what she is seeing, surely it can’t be.  She crossed the room slowly, dropping her hair towel on the floor and kneeling beside the wooden chest.  The wood is worn and little scuffed, as though is had been moved many times over the years, travelled long and hard.  The little metal catch is stiff as she pries it open.  The scent of honeysuckle and jasmine rises when she opens the lid.  Reverently she strokes the jewel coloured coverlet folded on top, the brushed velvet as soft as it was the last time, she lay beneath it. 

Bucky had been so damn proud of himself when she had squealed and cooed over the linen chest a few days after they were married.  She had been stunned at the gift.  It had been thoughtful and kind and exactly what she wanted.  It had been a pricy gift for the time.  Most materials people in Brooklyn could afford were in more drab, practical colours.  On top of the bright fabric was the thread count of the sheets, high enough to have satisfied even Pepper and her love from good linens. 

She’s half way to the bedroom, dragging the overly large chest along with one hand, keeping her towel up with the other when Bucky walks in. 

“You couldn’t wait till I came back to do that for you?  You just got out of the hospital ward.  Did you forget you got shot six times less than a week ago?”  He asks in exasperation, leaning down to lift the wooden chest himself. 

Darcy shrugs and follows him to her bedroom.  She nearly walks into his back when he stops in the doorway, mouth gaping at the bed.  There are steps up on three sides and a wide leather padding the whole way round, in the centre is a sunken bed, the comforter fluffy and a multitude of pillows and throws.  Darcy pokes him in the kidney and he lurches forward a step.

“I understand now why you always had walls and furniture surrounding our bed back in Brooklyn.”  He says after a minute, placing the chest at the foot of the steps.

“Do you like it?”  she asks, suddenly feeling shy. 

It’s completely over the top, but Tony and Pepper had insisted she have whatever she wanted when she moved in.  They had both had a blast helping find the furniture for her apartment.  Pepper had been so taken with the idea of the bed that she’d had a similar one put in the small den off the main lounge, perfect for them all to snuggle up in and watch tv. 

He glances over his shoulder and smiles slowly, she holds her breath when he draws his bottom lip between his teeth.  Suddenly she becomes aware of the fact that they are finally alone, no monitors, no nurses or Lexie and Mark checking on her every hour.  This is the first time they’ve been properly alone since he brought her back.  Before that it had been four years for her and god knows how many decades for him. 

The flush rises up her face as her body responds to the cues he’s sending.  Her eyes widen as he turns towards her, the maddening little smirk tugging at his beautiful kissable lips.  She backs up a step as he takes a step towards her, she reads the intention in his eyes and the breath leaves her body.  For a split second she considers running and letting him chase her but changes her mind and lunges forward instead, ducking under his arm and launching herself into her nest.  He twists mid-stride, confused and surprised by her unexpected move.  Darcy feels the cackle bubble up and lets it lose.  She throws her towel off and dives under the covers.

“No clothes in bed.”  She pipes up from under the duvet. 

He’s fast. Seconds later she feels the hard metal plates of his hand grip her ankle and pull her out from beneath a mound of pillows.  They are both laughing.  Her giggles bright and happy as he gets his hands on her, lightly pinching her waist and fluttering over her tummy.  She retaliates and they continue the childish game until they both stop, aware of the position they are now in.  He holds her hands down on either side of her head, his body pinning hers to the mattress, the warmth of his skin where they touch feels like a dream. 

“Fuckin' Christ, Darcy.”  He breathes hotly into her neck as he inhales her scent.  She wriggles a little and draws one leg up over his, pulling him in closer.  He lifts his head and gently rests his forehead against hers.

“I’ve missed this Doll.”  He finally tells her quietly.  The sorrow in his voice makes her eyes sting.

“I’ve missed this too.”  She had missed this so much.  It’s not about sex, though it’s certainly part of it.  It’s the intimacy and joy they just took in each other.  The silly things they would do together behind closed doors, when they didn’t have to be anything for anyone but themselves.  To be able to relax and let down their walls, jut each other and no one else.  He lets her hands loose and rests on his elbow.  He brings his hand up to softly move the stands of her hair from her face and tuck them back behind her ear.  She feels his fingers trail down her neck and moans when he traces the silvery raised lines of their bond mark.  Now all she can think of is him kissing down her neck and biting down. 

“Is this okay?”  he asks her carefully.  Confusion colours her mind at both the words and tone.  Paying attention to their bond she feels his walls coming down tight.  She whines unhappily when he won’t let her in. 

“James?”  her tone has risen, a tendril of hurt uncoiling from her when he looks away from her.  She feels his muscles bunching, ready to roll off her, maybe even leave entirely and she grabs his face in her hands, stopping him from running. 

When he tries to pull away again, she wraps her legs around his thighs and clings like a limpet.  It’s when her hand moves down to cling to his arm that she understands at least partly what’s going on. The jarring scent of shame and embarrassment the rolls from him makes her feel sick.  He had used his metal hand to touch her, to hold her, God’s, she hadn’t even noticed, only knew that he was touching her. 

“Don’t you dare pull away from me Bucky Barnes.  I have been through hell, managing to stay alive long enough to find you again.”  It comes out in an angry hiss, she really didn’t expect this whole moment to turn into this.  Just for a few minutes she had forgotten all the problems still facing them, the responsibilities they had, the people outside this room who were relying on them to be leaders, to be strong. She wants it back, she wants the easiness that used to be between them, but no matter how hard she tries to ignore it, that facts don’t lie.  Neither of them are the same, there’s something missing that’s going to take time for them to build back up again. 

“I’m sorry… it’s just, it’s been a long time, for both of us.  I…   Darcy I’m not the same as I was.  I’m not a whole man anymore.”

She wants to call bullshit on that statement, she really does.  Because to her, the whole of him is exactly who he is, doesn’t matter to her what he’s made of, only that the man inside loves her. She gets it though, the hollow spaces left behind by time and loss.  Darcy feels the same, acutely, her empty space that was once filled by two tiny girls she can never get back.   

“James I am not about to let you put yourself down for things that were so far outside your ability to change it’s hysterical.  No, seriously, I will get hysterical James.” 

She braces her hands on his shoulder and encourages him to roll over.  He lets out a sigh and lets her move him till he’s lying on his back, his head tilted back staring at the ceiling.  Darcy leans up on one arm and drapes a leg over him, pressing in tightly to his side.  When he finally looks at her, she trails a hand up his chest until it meets the place where flesh and metal meet.  The scars are ropey and thick, she won’t lie it’s not pretty, in fact something ugly twists in her gut at the feel of it under her fingertips.  He stops her, taking her hand so gently in his.  The metal is cool and smooth, the tear escapes her eye, despite her best intentions.  The press of his lips on her knuckles helps ground her again.  Their eyes meet and all she wants is to take away the pain she finds there.

“I want to tell you that I don’t care about your arm, but it would be a lie.”  She begins, holding his gaze steadily.  She will never lie to him, she can’t.   “I do care, I care that part of what makes you feel whole was taken from you… I care that you still feel the one you lost.  I care that this one makes you feel lesser somehow.”  She pauses and swallows back the bitterness.   “I care that you feel compromised because a part of you will always remind you of the weapon Hydra made of you.  But I do not need you to have two arms to love you.  I don’t need you to hide the metal because you think I will be disturbed by it.  I need you to just love me, always.  I want you to talk to me when it all gets too much for you.  I want you to still need me.”  Her voice is a whisper now, she’s trying so hard not to let it break with the heavy emotion she feels from him.  “I want you to touch me, flesh or metal, it doesn’t matter.  At the end of the day it’s just you.  Flesh or metal, the one controlling it is the man I adore.  This…”  she says gently, stroking the metal bicep, “it’s part of you now, and I love every part of you, no matter what.  I love all of you, even the broken bits, the parts that don’t fir right anymore and the empty spaces that have been left behind from all the shit you went through.  So please, come back to me and stop this.  You gave me your heart a long time ago, there is nothing that will ever make me want to give it back.  Please.”  Darcy doesn’t know what it is she’s asking, pleading for in that moment, but it doesn’t matter when he cups the back of her head and draws her down into a kiss. 

It’s like drowning, falling into a kiss with James, it pulls her under and there is no room left for sadness of hurt.  All she can feel is the warmth of his arm behind her as he pulls her closer.  The moment he lets his walls down and lets her in she is flying, on a sea of love and hope, the bare tinges of guilt at the edges, she gently sooths away.  There is a deep sort of gratitude in his kiss, and thankfulness for her words, for her light. 

The longer he holds her though, the less it feels quite so innocent.  Lust flares between them, the scent of it filling the room.  Her response to the sudden need in him is immediate, she moans as his hand finds purchase at her hip as he hauls her up till she’s straddling him, her legs straining across his thighs, her core pressed against his growing hardness.  They both moan breathlessly as she grinds her hips down, pressing him into her warm heat.  The kiss breaks, both of them panting with lust and desire.

She wants him, all of him, he can feel it in everything she does and has said.  The heat of her body atop him makes him forget the cold of cryo, the softness of her skin where they meet a reminder of days long past, the echo of the memory of what it felt like to be deep inside her sends a surge of desire through their bond. 

“I want you doll, please…  can I…  can we.”  He knows he can, that she does, but a part of him cringes away from assuming anything right now.  He doesn’t want her to feel like she has to do something just to make him feel better.  

“I love you, I want you too.  I’ve felt empty inside without you.  Please, make love to me, make me forget we were ever apart.”

It’s easy after that, there is nothing stopping him from devouring her.  There is no room for thought, just feeling.  He bucks under her and groans, she’s wet and warm and fuck, she smells amazing, he wants to drive into her and forget everything except for her.  His heart is pounding in his chest as she reaches between them and palms the length of him in her tiny hand.  How could he have forgotten what this felt like, the way she could bring him to the edge with just a touch?  He pulls her hand away and brings her flush against his chest, gripping her ass and pressing into her heat once more.

Darcy shudders as his hands clasp around her ass, the feel of his mouth latched onto her neck as he kisses his way down the column of her throat winding her higher with need.  She moans his name as he presses her against his growing erection, sliding through her folds aided by the wetness he has drawn from her.  Her name is whispered between kisses, interspaced with fuck and Doll and sweetheart.  He was always such a talker in bed. 

Between the space of one breath and the next he rolls them over, his head dipping down to capture a nipple in his mouth, drawing the skin taught as he cups the other in his hand, tugging at the nipple.  Heat grows in her belly and the ache between her legs makes her cant her hips up, looking desperately for some friction. 

“Not yet, Darcy Doll.”  His voice is low, the tone sending a shiver down her spine. 

The heat between them is only growing,

“Oh God, please, please, James, please.”

Darcy doesn’t know how long he keeps her there, teetering on the edge, his clever fingers finding their way between her legs, his mouth laving and nipping at her breasts.  The blunt tip of his finger glides through her slickness, barley grazing her clit over and over in a maddeningly slow dance of seduction.  Her body throbs with each touch.  Every time she thrusts towards his hand, he pulls away slightly leaving her near tears with frustration and want.  Her back is bowed with the weight of her desire, her fingers digging into his skin, holding onto him through each shuddering breath.  A litany of begging prayer flows from her lips like honey as he strokes slowly over the pulsing bud, the pressure he allows increasing with each pass over her swollen flesh.  Her body moves in time with his hand now, her cries near to whimpers as her desire soaks her thighs.  When he kisses up her jaw to catch her lips with his, he teases her mouth open with his tongue, she whines franticly.  That’s when he finally gives her what she needs, his tongue stroking into her mouth, thrusting over hers.  At the same time, he finally, finally, pushes his fingers into her deeply and brings the heel of his thumb to press down on her clit, it’s the tiny crook of his fingers inside her, unerringly finding her trigger that sends her over the edge.  It isn’t fast, but bubbles up, moving out from her core, lighting her veins on fire, the wave spreading out setting her aflame, he continues to stroke her gently through it as she cries out and then the second wave of pleasure follows the first like lightening, her belly clenches and her inner walls flutter erratically around his fingers and still the wave keeps building till she can’t breath and it finally breaks. 

Her body convulses under and around him and the high keening wail she makes sends a thrill of smug satisfaction through him.  He slows the stroke of his fingers, gently withdrawing and smoothing his hand over the damp curls, cupping her sex possessively.

Her ears are ringing is the first thing she thinks when she finally feels her body again, there is wetness on her cheeks and she draws shuddering breaths into her lungs as she shakes.  She feels detached, part of her watching from a distance while tiny tremors run through her. 

Darcy blinks up at him dazedly, his eyes are blown wide, probably mirroring her own.  She nuzzles her nose into his and the two-exchange slow, languid kisses while her body slowly comes down and eventually stops shaking.  He smooths his hand over her side, curving at the dip of her waist and then up, to softly run under her ribcage, his fingertips trace lightly under the skin of her breast drawing patters only he can see.  The familiar soothing action reminds her of just how gentle this giant of a man can be, how careful he always is with her, almost afraid he might break her if he’s not careful.  Of course, that is the truth now, his strength is many times more than it once was, it’s all the more thrilling to know the control he is exerting to keep from accidently hurting her.  The power she has alone to command that strength.  He is hers, always.  She bites her lip and skims her fingers through his hair, lightly scraping his scalp with her nails as she pulls his metal hand in to cup her breast, using her own hand to encourage him to squeeze lightly, letting him test the weight of her.  His thumb plucks softly at the hardening bud and a fresh rush of wetness floods from her core as he takes the initiative. 

“I want you Darcy, I need you…”  he asks her for permission.  She answers him with a kiss, tugging at him till he hovers over her.  She cradles his body between her legs and pulls him close, her heels digging into the top of his thighs. 

“I need you too James, now come home.”

The head of his cock slips easily through her folds and nudges at her entrance, there is little resistance as he pushes inside her.  She squirms towards him, but his large hand has a solid hold of her hip, he knows her well, knows her impatience.  Achingly slowly he rocks into her a little further with each shallow thrust.  His face is tucked into her neck, kissing and grazing their bond mark with his teeth as she babbles incoherently, her mind reduced to mush from the feel of him slowly filling her.   The stretch of him is familiar at first then she realises it’s not time and forced celibacy that makes it her feel tighter, but that he’s bigger, thicker.  The feel of him impaling her, the constant breach and retreat is building her up again.  It takes a few minutes like this before he is finally seated in her completely.  She feels unbearably full and deliciously stretched, the empty ache finally filled with him.  Each breath she takes squeezing him and she can feel the light burn as he nudges her cervix.  His muscles are straining and vibrating from the force of holding back from what he wants to do to her.  Darcy thinks she might lose her mind like this, held tightly in his arms, his weight pinning her to the bed and his cock buried so deep inside her she will never want him to leave. For a few moments they lie like that, still, connected deeply.  She wants him to move, the twitching and throbbing of his cock inside her provokes a different sort of ache.  She tugs his hair and he lift his head, locking his eyes with hers and he begins to move, building up a steady rhythm.  Darcy whimpers as he drives deeper and urges him on.  He doesn’t look away from her, she watches as gold bleeds into the edges of his iris and feels the answering echo in her own.   

On the next thrust he grinds down on her pelvic bone and her vision burns white in ecstasy, wrenching his name from her lips, he repeats the action again and again until she can’t find the breath to even cry out anymore.  And then he whispers a command.

“Come for me Doll.”

She breaks, a last whining moan torn from her as she flies apart in his arms, her body contracting around him, her bones feel like liquid fire, how is it possible for him to make her feel this twice in so short a time?  It’s as the orgasm washes over her that the rhythm changes and he begins to pound into her chasing his own peak and muttering her name over and over into her skin.  Darcy tips her head to the side and offers her neck, tiny pleas whisper from her lips into his ear.  He is already biting down when he comes deep inside, his hot seed filling her up causing her to pull him deeper, her heels digging into the small of his back as she clenches around him.  Her eyes roll back in her head at the twin feelings of warmth at her neck and in her womb.  She feels his pleasure as her own and shares hers as their minds join over their mating bond.  She feels limp and liquid as she drifts down from the high, he’s still holding her caged in his arms, gently licking the wound to close it up.  She gasps and rubs a cheek into his hair. 

Darcy smiles at him with sleepy happy eyes and he presses a kiss into the crown of her head.

“I love you.”  She manages to whisper out.

The last thing she hears is his deep chuckle and a declaration in return.

“Love you too Darcy girl, I got you, just sleep.”

“Mine” she murmurs lowly.

“m’not going nowhere doll, I’ll be here when you wake up.”

Oblivion takes her as he tucks the covers around them, his scent encompassing her in safety.  For the first time in nearly five years, Darcy sleeps without worry or nightmares.   Her Alpha’s arms around her, protecting her from the world.  It’s better with two.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you will all enjoy this next part of our story. I will try to update at least twice a month or more if possible. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas in the comments! Chellacat.  
> Thank you to JamesBestGirl for all your hard work and help. I would never have been able to get so far without you.xxx
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> **Follow on Instagram! Hopefully this will help keep track of everyone and who they are connected to etc. More updates to come on IG this week.**
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